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1914. 

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THE  ROMANCE  OF  PREACHING 


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SEP  13  1949 

YALE   LECTURES    ON    PREACHING 


The  Romance  of 
Preaching 


By  .,/ 

CHARLES  SILVESTER  HORNE 


With  an  Introduction  by 
CHARLES  R.  BROWN,  D.  D. 

And  a  Biographical  Sketch  by 
HOWARD  A.  BRIDGMAN.  D.  D. 


New  York         Chicago         Toronto 
Fleming     H.     Revell     Company 

London  and  Edinburgh 


Copyright,    1914,  by 
FLEMING  H.  REVELL  COMPANY 


New  York:  i^iS  Fifth  Avenue 
Chicago:  125  North  Wabash  Ave. 
Toronto:  25  Richmond  Street,  W. 
London:  21  Paternoster  Square 
Edinburgh:      100    Princes    Street 


Introduction 

By  Charles  R.  Brown ,  D.  D.,  Dean  of  the 

Tale  Divinity  School 

FROM  the  days  when  Henry  Ward 
Beecher  gave  the  first  series  of  lec- 
tures on  the  "  Lyman  Beecher  Foun- 
dation "  in  Yale  University,  on  through  those 
years  when  this  service  has  been  performed 
by  such  eminent  men  as  Phillips  Brooks 
and  R.  W.  Dale,  Henry  van  Dyke  and  John 
Watson,  Lyman  Abbott  and  George  A. 
Gordon,  Washington  Gladden  and  Francis 
G.  Peabody,  the  task  of  inspiring  young 
ministers  to  nobler  effort  in  their  high  call- 
ing has  been  well  performed.  But  among 
them  all,  few  lecturers  have  ever  so  gripped 
the  divinity  students,  the  larger  audience  of 
pastors  in  active  service  and  the  thought- 
ful people  of  New  Haven  as  did  Silvester 
Home  when  he  spoke  to  us  on  "  The  Ro- 
mance of  Preaching." 

He  was  himself  a  shining  example  of  those 
5 


6  INTRODUCTION 

high  and  chivalrous  quaHties  which  he  would 
covet  for  the  true  prophet,  and  the  younger 
Knights  of  the  Cross  responded  to  his  spir- 
itual appeal  as  to  the  bugle-call  of  a  genuine 
leader. 

The  intellectual  distinction  which  marked 
his  utterances,  the  fine  literary  form  in  which 
they  were  phrased,  the  moral  passion  which 
gave  to  their  delivery  that  energy  which  be- 
longs to  words  which  are  '*  spirit  and  life," 
together  with  the  rare  spiritual  insight  dis- 
played, all  combined  to  make  notable  the 
service  rendered  by  Mr.  Home  to  Yale  Uni- 
versity. 

It  seemed  tragic  that  just  three  days  after 
he  had  finished  this  course  of  lectures,  he 
should  suddenly  be  caught  away  like  the 
prophet  of  old,  from  the  deck  of  a  steamer  as 
he  neared  the  city  of  Toronto  where  he  was 
to  preach  next  day  at  the  University.  Here, 
indeed,  are  his  last  words,  spoken  in  an  upper 
room  to  his  brother  ministers,  younger  and 
older,  upon  whom  he  had  breathed  his  own 
spirit  of  intense  devotion  to  the  high  task  of 
proclaiming  the  Gospel  of  Christ  1 


INTRODUCTION  7 

The  sense  of  loss  to  England  and  to  Amer- 
ica, and  to  the  whole  Christian  world,  made 
all  hearts  heavy.  But  "  he  being  dead  yet 
speaketh,"  in  these  inspiring  words  and  in 
that  genius  for  friendship  which  has  left  its 
benediction  upon  so  many  thousands  of 
hearts,  and  in  that  distinguished  service 
which  it  was  his  privilege  to  render  to 
Church  and  to  State  on  that  side  the  water 
and  on  this. 

Yale  University. 


A  Biographical  Sketch 

By  Howard  A.  Bridgman,  D.  D.,  Editor  of 
"  The  Congregationalist " 

INTO  the  forty-nine  years  of  his  earthly 
life  Charles  Silvester  Home  poured  a 
measure  of  service  in  behalf  of  his  na- 
tion, his  church  and  the  world  at  large,  such 
as  can  be  credited  to  few  of  his  contempora- 
ries on  either  side  of  the  Atlantic.  He  was 
fortunate  in  his  ancestry,  his  training,  his 
environment,  his  family,  his  friends,  and  in 
the  opportunities  that,  from  time  to  time, 
crossed  his  path,  but  the  greatest  of  God's 
many  gifts  to  him  was  a  sense  of  the  glory 
and  seriousness  of  life  and  an  eagerness, 
with  God's  help,  to  do  his  own  part  in  the 
work  of  the  world.  A  son  of  the  manse  he 
was  born  in  Cuckfield,  Sussex,  England, 
April  15,  1865,  took  his  arts  course  at  Glas- 
gow University,  entering  upon  graduation 
the  newly  established  theological  school  at 
Oxford  known  as  Mansfield  College,  whose 
9 


lO  A   BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCH 

principal,  the  late  Dr.  Andrew  M.  Fairbairn, 
was  renowned  for  his  learning  and  his  per- 
sonal influence  over  his  pupils.  Before  the 
young  theologue,  who  at  once  evinced  his 
unusual  qualifications  for  the  ministry,  com- 
pleted his  course,  a  church  in  London  claimed 
him  as  its  leader  and  there  at  Kensington 
for  ten  years  in  a  fashionable  section  of 
the  world's  metropolis  Mr.  Home  preached 
and  laboured,  building  up  a  compact  and 
vigorous  organization  and  gaining  distinc- 
tion even  in  his  earliest  years  as  a  pulpit  and 
platform  orator.  Then  came  the  pull  on  his 
sensitive,  daring  nature  of  London's  poverty 
and  need.  Leaving  his  attractive  pastorate, 
where  he  had  won  popularity  among  all 
classes,  he  assumed  the  leadership  at  White- 
field's  Tabernacle  in  the  heart  of  the  city, 
close  to  the  homes  of  the  poor  and  to  haunts 
of  shame.  Into  this  new  enterprise  he  en- 
tered with  characteristic  zeal  and  soon  de- 
veloped a  great  church  of  the  institutional 
type,  pervaded  with  a  homelike  atmosphere 
and  ministering  Sundays  and  week  days 
alike  to   clerks,  artisans  and  other  types  of 


A   BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH  II 

working  people,  and  exercising  a  beneficent 
influence  over  the  neighbourhood,  which 
sadly  needed  something  to  counteract  the  in- 
fluence of  the  gin-house  and  brothel. 

Meanwhile  the  Congregational  Churches 
of  England,  and  the  Free  Churches  generally, 
had  been  claiming  Mr.  Home's  efficient  as- 
sistance in  the  support  of  important  enter- 
prises. Invitations  to  speak  here  and  there 
were  showered  upon  him.  He  was  hon- 
oured with  the  chairmanship  of  the  Congre- 
gational Union  of  England  and  Wales. 
Pressing  public  issues  like  the  controversy 
over  the  Education  Bill  drew  him  into  the 
arena  of  politics,  and  he  became  known  as 
one  of  the  most  gallant  and  earnest  fighters 
for  freedom  in  Church  and  State.  His  rare 
oratorical  gifts  made  him  one  of  the  favour- 
ite spokesmen  of  the  Non-conformist  con- 
science on  many  public  occasions.  It  was 
natural,  in  view  of  the  reliance  placed  upon 
him,  that  he  should  at  last  yield  to  the  strong 
demand  that  he  stand  for  Parliament,  and  in 
1910  he  was  returned  as  junior  Member  for 
Ipswich.     For  a  time  he  undertook  to  carry 


12  A  BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH 

the  burden  of  his  great  church  along  with  his 
Parliamentary  duties,  but  at  the  end  of  ten 
years  of  the  hardest  kind  of  work  at  White- 
field's  he  relinquished  his  leadership,  only, 
however,  to  give  himself  more  untiringly  to 
clamorous  calls  for  his  services.  He  felt 
especially  the  appeal  of  the  Brotherhood 
Movement,  and  was  planning  as  National 
President  to  give  much  time  to  its  advocacy 
and  to  details  of  administration. 

All  through  the  years  of  active  ministry  he 
wielded  a  facile  pen  and  many  articles  in 
newspapers  and  magazines  bear  witness  to 
his  literary  fertility,  while  even  more  sub- 
stantial and  enduring  in  their  influence  are 
his  valuable  volumes,  "  A  Popular  History  of 
the  Free  Churches,"  "  A  Modern  Heretic," 
"  A  Story  of  the  London  Missionary  Society," 
"  The  Ministry  of  the  Modern  Church,"  and 
"  David  Livingstone."  His  last  and  in 
many  respects  his  noblest  literary  production 
was  the  Lyman  Beecher  lectures  at  Yale,  to 
the  preparation  of  which  he  devoted  much 
time  during  the  last  year  of  his  life,  and 
which  are  embodied  in  this  volume. 


A  BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCH  1 3 

As  preacher,  organizer,  publicist,  author, 
pastor  and  friend,  Silvester  Home  did  a  work 
in  his  short  life  that  in  volume  and  quality 
made  him  one  of  the  remarkable  religious 
leaders  of  his  age.  And  over  and  around 
everything  that  he  did,  touching  it  with  en- 
during beauty,  was  the  radiance  of  a  pure, 
joyous  and  unselfish  life. 

Boston. 


Contents 

I. 

The  Servant  of  the  Spirit  . 

17 

II. 

The  First  of  the  Prophets  . 

39 

III. 

The  Apostolic  Age 

83 

IV. 

The  Royalty  OF  the  Pulpit:  Ath- 

ANASIUS  AND  ChRYSOSTOM    . 

115 

V. 

The   Rulers   of  Peoples  :   Savo- 
narola, Calvin  and  John  Knox 

153 

VI. 

The  Founders  of  Freedom  :  John 
Robinson    and    the    Pilgrim 
Fathers    

191 

VII. 

The  Passion  of  Evangelism  :  Wes- 

ley and  Whitefield 

225 

VIII. 

The  Romance  of  Modern  Preach- 
ing     

263 

LECTURE  I 
THE  SERVANT  OF  THE  SPIRIT 


LECTURE  I 
THE  SERVANT  OF  THE  SPIRIT 

I  MUST  begin  the  honourable  task  which 
your  kind  confidence  has  assigned  to 
me  by  a  simple  and  heartfelt  acknowl- 
edgment of  this  high  privilege.  You  have 
asked  me  to  attempt  an  undertaking  which 
can  never  have  been  an  easy  one,  and  which 
becomes  measurably  more  difficult  as  the 
long  sequence  of  volumes  occupies  shelf 
after  shelf  of  our  libraries.  There  were  as 
you  know  humane  laws  under  the  old 
Hebrew  dispensation  in  favour  of  those 
who  had  to  toil  for  small  reward  as  gleaners 
of  the  meagre  residuum  of  the  harvest-field 
after  the  more  favoured  harvesters  had  filled 
their  barns  to  overflowing  with  grain  of  the 
earlier  reaping.  So  far  as  I  can  see  my 
predecessors  have  had  little  compassion  on 
posterity.  They  never  beheld  my  pathetic 
figure  laboriously  garnering  the  slender  ears 
19 


20  THE  ROMANCE  OF  PREACHING 

they  had  overlooked,  and  submitting  them 
for  acceptance  to  a  highly-critical  market. 

Nevertheless,  if  I  cherish  for  my  distin- 
guished predecessors  just  a  faint  sentiment 
of  envy,  I  trust  I  am  able  at  the  same 
time  to  perceive  that  they  did  not  have  all 
the  good  fortune.  We  are  gleaning  on  a 
field  where  history  is  being  made  every  year. 
The  passage  of  the  generations  enhances  the 
splendour  of  the  retrospect,  and,  in  propor- 
tion, the  magnificence  of  the  prospect.  You 
have  not  invited  me  here  to  lecture  on  an 
obsolete  art.  This  is  not  a  funeral  oration. 
The  prophet  is  not  on  the  point  of  being 
bowed  out  of  the  modern  world.  The 
progress  of  civilization  may  make  some  pro- 
fessions unnecessary.  With  the  world-wide 
triumph  of  the  Prince  of  Peace  I  take  it  the 
soldier  will  make  his  final  salute  to  the 
nations ;  and  I  suppose  even  the  lawyer  may 
find  existence  somewhat  precarious.  Some 
of  us  look  to  see  the  enterprise  at  present 
associated  with  the  manufacture  and  sale  of 
injurious  liquors  and  implements  of  war 
diverted  to  more  wholesome  channels. 


THE   SERVANT   OF   THE   SPIRIT  21 

Some  trades  and  professions,  it  is  clear, 
will  die  out  as  the  kingdom  of  God  comes  to 
its  own.  But  for  every  voice  that  carries 
inspiration  to  its  fellows  ;  for  every  soul  that 
has  some  authentic  word  from  the  Eternal 
wherewith  to  guide  and  bless  mankind,  there 
will  always  be  a  welcome.  No  changes  of 
the  future  can  cancel  the  commission  of  the 
preacher.  He  does  not  hold  that  com- 
mission from  any  human  society.  He  is  the 
servant  of  the  Spirit.  He  is  not  the  creation 
of  a  state,  or  a  municipality.  Societies  may 
organize  and  reorganize  themselves  as  they 
will.  They  may  make  and  unmake  their 
officials.  Some  commonwealths  have  chosen 
to  break  with  the  tradition  of  kingship. 
Some  have  tried  every  form  of  military 
dictatorship  and  civil  despotism ;  they  have 
experimented  with  oligarchies,  autocracies, 
and  aristocracies.  At  times  they  have  tried 
every  form  of  government  in  swift  succession. 
Possibly  it  is  a  wise  thing  that  we  should  not 
cast  our  forms  of  national  life  in  so  rigid  a 
mould.  But  in  any  case  nobody  would  be 
bold  enough  to  predict  that  this  or  that  office 


22  THE   ROMANCE   OF   PREACHING 

in  the  commonwealth  is  final  and  permanent ; 
and  may  not  be  modified  if  society  so  de- 
cides. You  remember  Mr.  William  Watson's 
fine  lines : 

"  The  seasons  change,  the  winds  they  shift  and  veer ; 
The  grass  of  yesteryear 
Is  dead  ;  the  birds  depart,  the  groves  decay ; 
Empires  dissolve,  and  peoples  disappear : 
Song  passes  not  away. 
Captains  and  conquerors  leave  a  litde  dust 
And  Kings  a  dubious  legend  of  their  reign ; 
The  swords  of  Caesar  they  are  less  than  rust ; 
The  Poet  doth  remain." 

Suppose  Watson  had  said,  the  prophet 
rather  than  the  poet  ?  For  the  prophet  is  of 
older  and  nobler  lineage,  and  his  order  in- 
cludes all  the  children  of  inspiration  whether 
they  have  kindled  the  soul  of  the  world  by 
speech  or  song.  And  I  repeat,  as  society  can- 
not commission  a  man  to  be  a  poet,  even  so  it 
is  beyond  the  authority  of  any  state  however 
powerful  to  create  the  prophet ;  aye,  or  to 
make  his  message  false  or  barren,  no  matter 
how  governors  may  growl,  and  throned  in- 
iquities fulminate.     No  human  authority  can 


THE  SERVANT   OF  THE   SPIRIT  23 

credit  or  discredit  his  words.  His  credentials 
are  of  superior  authenticity.  Let  me  state 
the  position  I  propose  to  occupy  in  these 
lectures  once  for  all,  and  at  its  highest.  The 
preacher,  who  is  the  messenger  of  God,  is  the 
real  master  of  society  ;  not  elected  by  society 
to  be  its  ruler,  but  elect  of  God  to  form  its 
ideals  and  through  them  to  guide  and  rule 
its  life.  Show  me  the  man  who,  in  the 
midst  of  a  community  however  secularized 
in  manners,  can  compel  it  to  think  with  him, 
can  kindle  its  enthusiasm,  revive  its  faith, 
cleanse  its  passions,  purify  its  ambitions,  and 
give  steadfastness  to  its  will,  and  I  will  show 
you  the  real  master  of  society,  no  matter 
what  party  may  nominally  hold  the  reins  of 
government,  no  matter  what  figurehead 
may  occupy  the  ostensible  place  of  au- 
thority. 

Nor  is  the  office  of  the  preacher  in  the 
smallest  danger  of  lapsing  for  lack  of 
candidates.  Our  embarrassment  arises  from 
riches  not  from  poverty.  To-day  everybody 
will  preach  to  us  and  at  us,  whatever  quali- 
fications for  the  function  they  may  have  or 


24  THE  ROMANCE  OF  PREACHING 

lack.  Never  was  this  old  world  sown  so 
thick  with  pulpits.  Never  was  heard  in  it 
such  superabundance  of  gospels.  Who 
that  has  ever  read  a  modern  newspaper 
will  affirm  again  that  the  dogmatist  is 
dead  I  Creeds  jostle  one  another  in  the 
market-place  and  in  the  drawing-room  ;  jind 
their  often  harsh  and  hoarse  prophets  and 
prophetesses  announce  salvation  and  de- 
nounce judgment  quite  in  the  orthodox 
style.  Hot-gospellers  to-day  are  a  prolific 
race  ;  and  some  of  the  beliefs  for  which  they 
woo  and  win  converts  speak  volumes  for  the 
credulity  of  mankind. 

It  is  astonishing  what  eagerness  there  is 
in  our  time  to  enter  into  competition  with 
the  conventional  and  orthodox  pulpit,  and  to 
usurp  its  functions  in  dealing  with  the  big 
human  problems.  Now  it  is  the  dramatist 
who  is  not  content  until  he  has  converted  the 
stage  into  a  pulpit ;  now  it  is  the  journalist 
seeking  to  charm  the  public  ear  with  some 
message  that  he  believes  to  be  vital  to  the 
common  well-being ;  now  it  is  the  Socialist 
agitator,   on    his    soap-box    rostrum   at  the 


THE  SERVANT  OF  THE  SPIRIT  25 

Street-corner,  making  capital  out  of  the  in- 
consistencies and  hypocrisies  of  society,  quite 
in  the  old  prophet  strain ;  now  it  is  the 
novelist  marshalling  the  forces  of  experience 
and  imagination,  and  training  all  his  guns 
on  some  citadel  of  real  or  fancied  wrong; 
now  it  is  the  statesman  converting  the  plat- 
form of  political  expediency  into  the  pulpit 
of  eternal  principle ;  now  it  is  the  poet,  or 
the  prose  essayist,  setting  our  highest  and 
wisest  dreams  of  good  to  music  and  lifting 
up  the  eyes  of  fallible  human  nature  to  the 
hills  whence  cometh  its  strength.  It  must 
sometimes  appear  to  us  that  humanity  is  a 
long-suffering,  much-lectured  creature,  and 
that  not  we  of  the  churches  only  but  journal- 
ists, artists,  politicians,  novelists,  playwrights 
conceive  their  fellow-men  and  women  as  sit- 
ting in  pews,  patient  and  defenseless,  at  the 
mercy  of  every  would-be  exhorter  who  has 
discovered  that  they  are  not  so  good  as  they 
should  be. 

Thomas  Carlyle  in  his  day  expressed  pity 
for  humanity  whose  ears  were  thus  besieged 
by  armies  o^  strident  voices,  in  consequence 


26  THE   ROMANCE   OF   PREACHING 

of  which  he,  Thomas,  Hfted  up  his  voice  and" 
shouted  louder  than  all  the  rest.  I  confess 
to  you  I  enjoy  a  quiet  smile  whenever  the 
pessimists  suggest  that  the  vocation  of  the 
preacher  is  in  danger  of  becoming  obsolete. 
But  I  agree  that  God's  order  of  preaching 
friars  is  a  far  wealthier  society  than  some  of 
us  have  recognized.  America  to-day  will 
not  forget  to  blazon  upon  the  roll  of  her  great 
nineteenth  century  preachers  of  righteousness 
the  name  of  Abraham  Lincoln  as  w-ell  as  of 
Henry  Ward  Beecher  ;  and  Englishmen  who 
are  justly  proud  of  Robert  Hall  and  Thomas 
Binney,  Dale  and  Spurgeon,  cannot  forget  to 
number  also  among  her  national  prophets 
Thomas  Carlyle,  John  Ruskin  and  John  Bright. 
And  why  not  ?  It  is  no  business  of  ours  to 
belittle  our  calling.  We  hold  no  brief  for  any 
narrow  and  exclusive  theory  of  preaching.  In- 
spiration is  not  conditioned  by  a  white  tie  or 
a  Geneva  gown.  I  am  glad  to  have  listened 
to  truths  as  noble  and  as  Christian  on  the 
floor  of  parliarnent  as  have  ever  been  uttered 
under  the  dome  of  St.  Paul's.  The  Gettys- 
burg speech  was  the  message  of  a  prophet  of 


THE   SERVANT   OF  THE   SPIRIT  l"] 

God,  even  if  it  was  not  divided  into  three 
heads  and  an  application.  No,  we  who  call 
ourselves  preachers  enjoy  no  monopoly  of 
the  greatest  of  all  arts,  nor  are  we  interested 
in  establishing  one.  The  spirit  breatheth 
where  it  listeth.  Nobody  doubts  that  Amos 
was  of  us,  though  so  far  as  I  know  he  did 
not,  as  we  say,  preach  regularly  twice  a  Sun- 
day, Ploughmen  and  herdsmen,  carpenters, 
fishermen,  tax-collectors  and  tent-makers,  sons 
of  German  miners,  Huntingdonshire  farmers, 
and  Kentucky  backwoodsmen,  each  in  his 
time  and  order,  have  received  the  divine  affla- 
tus, and  therewith,  the  spiritual  and  moral 
leadership  of  mankind. 

History  it  is  true  gives  little  space  to  this 
aspect  of  the  progress  of  the  race.  Its  can- 
vas is  crowded  with  uniforms,  of  kings 
and  warriors  and  courtiers.  The  romance 
which  the  historian  sees  and  describes  to  us 
is  the  romance  symbolized  by  the  banners, 
the  martial  music,  and  all  the  seductive  pag- 
eantry of  war.  But  the  real  romance  of  his- 
tory is  this  romance  of  the  preacher ;  the 
sublime  miracle  of  the  God-intoxicated  soul 


28  THE   ROMANCE   OF  PREACHING 

with  vision  of  an  eternal  Will,  and  sense  of 
an  empire  to  which  all  continents,  tongues, 
races  belong.  This  man  stands  serene  amid 
the  clash  of  arms,  and  the  foolish  braggadocio 
of  Force,  asking  only  for  the  sword  named 
Truth,  for  the  harness  of  righteousness,  and 
the  spirit  of  peace.  This  is  the  world's  un- 
conquerable and  irresistible  Hero.  All  its 
most  enduring  victories  are  his.  It  is  he 
who  year  after  year,  and  generation  after 
generation,  in  spite  of  rebuffs,  defeats  and 
disappointments,  has  planted  the  banner  of 
the  kingdom  of  justice,  freedom  and  human- 
ity on  the  conquered  and  dismantled  fortresses 
of  oppression,  selfishness  and  wrong. 

Do  not  think  I  am  in  danger  of  departing 
from  the  special  object  of  these  lectures  if  I 
strike  this  note  at  the  outset.  It  will  do  us 
all  good  to  realize  the  catholicity  and  mag- 
nificence of  our  order.  It  is  well  to  realize 
that  for  justification  of  our  existence  we  can 
make  appeal  to  an  universal  instinct.  We 
may  well  cherish  our  affinities.  Our  kith 
and  kin  is  the  mightiest  family  under  God's 
heavens. 


THE  SERVANT  OF  THE  SPIRIT  29 

"  Shakespeare  was  of  us  ;  Milton  was  for  us ; 
Burns,  Shelley  were  with  us  ;  they  watch  from  their 
graves." 

Certainly,  no  man  was  ever  elect  of  God's 
spirit  to  be  the  mouthpiece  of  Christian 
righteousness  who  did  not  thereby  confess 
himself  one  of  us.  The  word  "  Sermon  "  has 
sometimes  had  an  uninviting  sound.  It  has 
not  always  been  associated  with  the  melting 
of  the  mists,  and  the  vision  of  the  infinite 
blue.  Sometimes  it  is  to  be  feared  that  it  has 
made  the  mists  more  dense,  impenetrable  and 
chill.  We  are  not  so  prejudiced  as  to  deny 
the  fact.  But  rightly  understood  mankind 
lives  and  grows  on  great  sermons  ;  and  in  no 
other  way.  Sublime  thoughts,  high  and  holy 
conceptions  of  life  and  death  and  duty,  lofty 
interpretations  of  nature  and  experience,  the 
light  that  reveals  God  upon  the  scene,  and 
that  dignifies  and  glorifies  human  nature 
— here  is  the  substance  of  those  great 
sermons  that  enter  into  men's  souls  and 
make  them  sons  of  God,  and  brothers  of 
humanity. 

Have  any  of  us  fathomed  the  depth  of  that 


30  THE   ROMANCE   OF   PREACHING 

supreme  saying  of  our  Lord's  that  the  real 
life  of  man  is  by  "  every  word  that  proceedeth 
out  of  the  mouth  of  God"?  Every  word  1 
The  science  of  biogenesis  is  as  compre- 
hensive as  that.  The  vital  ingredients  in 
our  spiritual  nurture  are  as  manifold  as  that. 
Every  word  of  God,  in  whatever  language 
or  dialect  of  the  mother  tongue  of  Deity,  is 
endowed  with  this  creative  power.  No  single 
syllable  of  the  Divine  speech  but  has  in  it 
life-bearing,  life-bestowing  qualities.  Even 
the  inorganic  creation  is  a  mute  evangelist. 
The  God  who  uttered  Himself  in  nature  has 
decreed  that  its  dumb  lips  should  have  their 
own  peculiar  eloquence.  There  are  sermons 
in  stones.  In  the  rocks  beneath  our  feet  lie 
the  hoarded  histories  of  past  millenniums. 
They  are  like  ancient  cinematograph  films 
by  means  of  which  the  marvellous  procession 
of  extinct  existences  passes  before  our  won- 
dering eyes,  and  stirs  our  sluggish  imagina- 
tion. Of  course  it  is  possible  to  watch  the 
drama  but  to  miss  the  meaning.  But  even 
Charles  Darwin  tracing  the  amazing  progress 
of  the  universe,   and   linking  up  as   he  be- 


THE   SERVANT  OF  THE   SPIRIT  3 1 

lieved  all  sentient  existences  to  their  flower 
and  consummation  in  the  life  of  man,  con- 
fessed that  "  at  times  there  came  over  him 
with  irresistible  force  the  conviction  that  he 
had  seen  the  Father."  Then  again,  as  he 
sadly  confessed,  he  lost  the  vision. 

But  alas !  there  is  nothing  extraordinary 
in  that  experience.  Because  we  make  every 
use  of  Nature  except  to  hearken  to  her  sub- 
limest  message,  it  does  not  follow  that  she 
has  lost  her  soul,  and  discarded  her  prophet's 
mantle.  Only  we  are,  as  our  fathers  used  to 
say,  gospel-hardened  to  her  words  of  truth 
and  grace,  and  especially  to  their  more  secret 
and  subtle  meanings.  Some  day  she  will 
surprise  us  in  a  more  sensitive  and  respon- 
sive mood,  and  show  us  in  her  mirror  the 
very  countenance  of  Deity,  and  we  shall 
know  that  the  place  we  stand  on  is  holy 
ground.  After  all,  Wordsworth's  Peter  Bell, 
sordid  and  vulgar,  is  not  altogether  false  to 
the  possibilities  of  life  when  he  is  represented 
as  overwhelmed  by  a  sudden  revelation  of 
Nature's  inner  glory ;  and  the  man  to  whom 
before 


32  THE  ROMANCE  OF  PREACHING 

"  A  primrose  by  the  river's  brim 
A  yellow  primrose  was  to  him 
And  it  was  nothing  more," 

looks  into  the  heart  of  Nature's  handiwork, 
hears  a  Voice  commanding  him  to  worship 
and  believe,  and  becomes  from  that  hour  a 
changed  man,  awakened  from  moral  and 
spiritual  torpor. 

A  primrose  in  God's  hands  is  text  enough 
to  shatter  all  our  shallow  agnosticisms,  and 
reward  our  honest  quest  for  the  Eternal. 
"Whither  can  I  go  from  Thy  presence?" 
cries  the  psalmist  with  his  poignant  sense  of 
the  unescapable  Preacher,  who  has  freighted 
every  atom  of  an  infinite  universe  with 
Divine  lessons,  warnings,  appeals  and  in- 
spirations. "  If  I  ascend  into  the  heavens 
Thou  art  there;  if  I  descend  into  hell  be- 
hold Thou  art  there."  Above  the  earth,  the 
glittering  heavens  declare  the  glory  of  God ; 
and  beneath  it  the  dark  secrets  of  the  under- 
world cannot  be  explored  without  Him. 
Somehow,  you  and  I  have  been  staged  in  an 
infinite  theatre,  every  fragment  of  which  rep- 
resents some  letter  in  the  Divine  caligraphy. 


THE  SERVANT   OF  THE   SPIRIT  33 

some  note  or  tone  in  the  ineffable  oratorio 
music,  in  which  the  spheres  sing  the  arias; 
and  yet  not  an  electron,  infinitely  minute,  but 
has  its  part  in  the  chorus.  That  is  how  we 
conceive  it.  The  Universe  is  itself  a  great 
Bible,  with  the  sublimest  of  all  intelligible 
themes  to  set  forth  and  illustrate,  and  with 
its  myriads  of  worlds  so  many  chapters  ex- 
panding the  one  central  and  vital  revelation, 
until  by  endless  iteration,  recapitulation  and 
accumulation  of  evidence,  the  argument  is 
established  on  which  immortal  souls  can 
build  an  unconquerable  faith, 

I  do  not  forget  that  there  are  many  to 
whom  the  whole  creation  is  inarticulate,  and 
the  universe  eloquent  of  Nothing.  To  them 
the  final  achievement  of  our  humanity  is  un- 
consciousness of  God.  The  progress  of  the 
race  is  marked  by  the  gradual  unlearning  of 
the  spiritual  lore  of  its  childhood.  Slowly 
but  surely,  one  by  one,  every  prophet  voice 
is  to  be  silenced,  without  and  within.  The 
solemn  call  to  the  human  soul  to  recognize 
its  origin  and  its  destiny  in  God  is  to  be 
heard  no  more.     The  worlds  resolve  them- 


34  THE   ROMANCE   OF   PREACHING 

selves  into  masses  of  matter,  many  of  them 
mere  useless  derelicts  on  the  ocean  of  space. 
They  cease  to  be  the  flaming  manuscripts  of 
the  Eternal  Wisdom,  with  their  address  to  the 
conscience  and  reason  of  mankind.  From  this 
green  earth  the  dews  of  inspiration  are  with- 
ered ;  the  bloom  of  its  higher  mystic  beauty 
is  fled.  It  becomes  merely  a  ball  of  ponder- 
able matter  revolving  aimlessly  in  unfathom- 
able space  ;  the  chance  grave  of  innumerable 
generations  of  existence  that  once  cherished 
the  pathetic  illusion  that  underneath  them 
were  Everlasting  Arms. 

The  evolutionist,  tracing  the  history  of 
man,  finds  this  astonishing  phenomenon, — 
that  once  there  dawned  on  man  the  con- 
sciousness of  God,  that  the  dawn  ripened 
into  the  perfect  day,  and  then  that  the  light 
faded  from  the  sky,  and  the  human  soul 
passed  through  the  twilight  of  dubiety  into 
the  night  of  dark  and  sterile  negation.  The 
Universe  will  then  become  like  some  ruined 
and  dismantled  abbey  or  cathedral,  once  aglow 
with  light  and  beauty,  and,  as  it  were,  quiver- 
ing  with    music,    attesting   its   high    heroic 


THE   SERVANT   OF  THE  SPIRIT  35 

human  faith  in  God  and  man ;  but  now 
with  altar  desolate  and  prostrate  pulpit,  and 
mouldering  fabric,  no  longer  a  witness  to  the 
world  of  spirit,  no  longer  a  trysting-place  be- 
tween the  human  and  the  divine,  no  longer 
the  sanctuary  where  the  oracles  of  heaven 
are  heard  and  tested  and  believed.  That  is 
what  we  are  sometimes  threatened  with. 
Men  may  conceive  the  universe  as  a  vast 
warehouse  ;  but  it  will  cease  to  be  a  church. 
Over  against  such  a  possibility  there  is 
the  undeniable  fact  that  every  fragment  of 
creation  is  endowed  with  the  preaching 
ofBce,  and  man  with  a  soul  that  cannot  be 
insensitive  to  the  universal  appeal.  Nor  has 
he  proved  himself  to  be  so.  From  a  thou- 
sand immortal  canvases  he  has  uttered  and 
still  utters  the  truths  with  which  Nature  has 
indoctrinated  him.  He  has  made  himself 
her  expositor,  her  interpreter.  Through  him 
she  has  expressed  her  inner  meaning.  And 
not  only  by  the  artist's  canvas  but  by  the 
language  of  the  poet  we  are  admitted  to  the 
shrine  where  the  arcana  of  Nature  are  com- 
municated   to    us.      The    materialists    who 


36  THE   ROMANCE   OF   PREACHING 

flatter  themselves  that  they  are  about  to  im- 
poverish the  universe  of  its  ideahsm  forget 
that  they  have  not  only  to  fight  down  the 
instinct  of  worship  in  every  human  breast, 
but  to  make  war  against  all  the  supreme 
interpreters  of  Nature, — musicians,  artists, 
poets  and  the  rest — who  saw  into  the  heart 
of  things  with  illuminated  Vision,  and  dedi- 
cated their  genius  to  proclaim  what  they 
saw.  The  significant  fact  is  that  every  man 
is  surrounded  by  the  Voices  that  call  to  life  ; 
and  that  no  one  can  ever  be  quite  sure  that 
he  has  closed  every  avenue  through  which 
divine  appeals  may  reach  his  highest  nature 
and  start  new  processes  of  faith  which  may 
wholly  change  his  character  and  his  destiny. 

"  Just  when  we're  safest,  there's  a  sunset-touch, 
A  fancy  from  a  flower-bell,  some  one's  death, 
A  chorus-ending  from  Euripides, 
And  that's  enough  for  fifty  hopes  and  fears." 

At  any  moment,  in  any  place,  we  may  find 
ourselves  in  church,  at  worship.  The  heart, 
so  securely  garrisoned,  may  be  suddenly 
stormed.     Before  we  know  it  we  have  made 


THE  SERVANT   OF   THE  SPIRIT  37 

the  fateful  concession,  and  thereby  signed 
our  capitulation.  God  has  taken  a  text, 
and  preached.  We  can  say  with  the  young 
prophet  of  long  ago,  "  The  angel  came 
and  waked  me,  as  a  man  is  waked  out  of 
sleep." 

In  all  of  this  there  is  no  suggestion  that  the 
office  and  function  of  the  preacher  can  ever 
be  superseded.  Rather  he  has  his  roots  in 
the  nature  of  things,  and  can  never  cease  to 
fulfill  his  mission  until  all  the  works  of 
God  cease  to  be  eloquent  of  the  love  and 
wisdom  of  their  Creator.  It  may  be  true  that 
of  late  years  mankind  generally  has  been 
tempted  to  lay  the  accent  on  other  instrumen- 
talities. The  State  bulks  more  largely  in  the 
thought  of  the  average  man  to-day  than  the 
Church  does.  The  statesman  and  politician 
are,  in  the  thought  of  our  democracies, 
clothed  with  almost  limitless  powers  for  the 
betterment  of  human  conditions.  They  have 
a  very  attractive  and  absorbing  gospel  to 
preach.  Their  sermons  are  of  higher  wages, 
better  houses,  the  fairer  distribution  of  wealth, 
and  the  shortening  of  the  hours  of  labour. 


38  THE   ROMANCE  OF   PREACHING 

Their  sphere  of  action  is  this  present  life, 
with  its  urgent  immediate  needs  ;  and  just 
because  tlieir  aim  is  avowedly  to  make  this 
present  world  a  better  place  to  live  in,  they 
will  never  fail  to  find  an  audience. 

You  remember  the  sort  of  popular  appeal 
that  George  Eliot  put  into  the  mouth  of 
"  Felix  Holt,  the  Radical,"  when  he  took  up 
his  parable  at  the  street  corner  against  the 
churches  and  the  parsons :  "  The  aristocrats 
supply  us  with  our  religion  like  anything  else 
and  get  a  profit  on  it.  They'll  give  us  plenty 
of  heaven.  We  may  have  land  there.  But 
we'll  offer  to  change  with  them.  We'll  give 
them  back  some  of  their  heaven,  and  take  it 
out  in  something  for  us  and  for  our  children 
in  this  world."  When  things  have  gone 
wrong  with  us  socially  and  industrially, 
preaching  such  as  that  makes  many  strings  to 
vibrate  in  the  average  human  breast.  It  is 
natural  that  the  multitude  should  begin  to  fix 
their  hopes  on  what  governments  can  do  for 
them,  and  should  have  but  little  patience 
with  the  evangelist  who  would  hand  to 
Lazarus,  greedy  for  crumbs,  a  tract  on  the 


THE   SERVANT  OF  THE   SPIRIT  39 

bliss  he  will  enjoy  when  he  gets  to  Abra- 
ham's bosom.  God  forbid  that  I  should  deny 
that  there  is  a  suggestion  of  irony  in  talking 
of  the  bread  of  life  to  the  physically  starving, 
the  raiment  of  righteousness  to  those  in 
threadbare  rags,  and  the  mansions  of  the 
blessed  to  those  living  in  garrets  or  cellars. 
Most  of  us  do  not  believe,  any  more  than 
Felix  Holt  did,  that  the  purpose  of  religion  is 
to  reconcile  us  to  the  postponement  of  all 
comfort  and  all  luxury  until  we  pass  into  an- 
other world.  No  sane  critic  will  ever  accuse 
the  Lord  Christ  of  being  indifferent  to  the 
physical  well-being  of  the  people. 

But  readers  of  George  Eliot's  famous  story 
will  remember  that  Felix  Holt's  social  minis- 
try was  the  result  of  a  moral  and  spiritual 
crisis  to  which  he  confessed  ;  and  it  had  not 
occurred  to  him  to  enquire  whence  the  im- 
pulse came  prompting  him  to  social  service 
and  political  propagandism  on  behalf  of  the 
disinherited.  "  The  angel  came  and  waked 
me,"  said  the  young  prophet  Zechariah,  and 
could  give  no  clearer  account.  All  he  knew 
was  that  for  years  he  had  been  in  a  state  of 


40  THE   ROMANCE  OF   PREACHING 

somnambulism — as  one  walking  in  his  sleep. 
He  had  lived  for  the  superficial,  for  the  things 
of  sense.  The  things  of  the  spirit  had  been 
outside  his  consciousness.  Then  came  the 
visitation — the  influence  of  the  higher  minis- 
try— and  his  soul  awoke.  You  are  familiar 
with  Sant's  popular  picture  of  "  The  Soul's 
Awakening."  The  young  girl  has  been  read- 
ing in  some  book  of  vision  ;  and  now  she  is 
looking  up  with  the  aspect  of  one  to  whom 
Revelation  has  come,  and  who  has  found 
God  and  Life  and  Duty.  When  Zechariah 
was  awaked,  shaken  out  of  sleep,  and  forced 
to  open  his  eyes  upon  reality,  we  are  told 
what  it  was  that  he  saw.  A  new  civilization  ! 
A  city  with  streets  in  which  the  children 
played,  and  where  the  inhabitants  grew  old ; 
where  there  was  work  for  all  and  leisure  for 
all.  A  city,  too,  built  without  walls,  un- 
armed, unfortified,  with  open  gates  hospitable 
to  all  mankind,  the  symbol  of  peace  and 
brotherhood. 

This  is  the  vision  of  an  awakened  youth. 
It  is  not  unreal  though  it  is  as  yet  unrealized. 
On    the    contrary,   it   is    the    kind   of  vision 


THE  SERVANT  OF  THE  SPIRIT  4I 

which  ought  to  be  a  permanent  endowment 
of  every  preacher's  imagination.  The  one 
thing  needful  to  make  us  prophets  is 
an  experience  akin  to  that  of  Zechariah 
— the  soul's  awakening.  Some  angel  of 
the  Lord,  some  messenger  from  His  Pres- 
ence, some  ministry  of  His  Hands  must 
wake  us  out  of  our  sleep.  Of  this  I  am 
very  sure — no  preacher  will  thrill  and  move 
his  generation  who  has  not  himself  known 
this  kindling  of  the  soul.  For  it  is  "  soul  " 
the  world  needs.  Everywhere  to-day  I  hear 
the  same  complaint — that  we  are  suffering 
from  lack  of  soul.  Art,  they  tell  us,  shows 
no  falling  off  in  skill  of  technique,  but 
there  is  so  little  soul  in  modern  pictures. 
Music  is  the  same  ;  the  great  composers  have 
left  no  successors.  Poetry  died  out  in  the 
nineteenth  century.  It  is  the  same  in  other 
spheres.  The  employer  complains  that  his 
workmen  put  no  soul  into  their  work.  The 
workman  retorts  that  industries  to-day  are 
managed  for  the  most  part  by  companies  ; 
and  companies  are  well  enough  called 
"  bodies  "  of  men,  but  they  are  bodies  with- 


42  THE  ROMANCE  OF   PREACHING 

out  souls.  Even  the  pulpits  of  the  world,  I 
,  hear   it   said,   are   occupied    by   those   who 

unite  to  a  chaste  style  a  well-furnished 
I  mind,  and  a  genius  for  criticism  and  analysis  ; 
I  but   somehow  there   is   little   soul,  and   the 

i'  winds    of   heaven   do   not   sweep  over   the 
spirits  of  their  audience  as  in  days  gone  by. 

All  this  may  be  exaggerated.  I  suspect  it 
is.  But  nobody  can  question  that  there  is  a 
measure  of  truth  in  it.  And  here,  remember, 
is  something  that  no  parliaments  or  con- 
gresses can  do.  Here  governments  are 
y^  impotent.  If  they  could  put  money  in  every 
one's  pocket,  a  good  roof  over  every  one's 
head,  and  the  best  clothes  on  every  one's 
back ;  still  they  could  not  put  a  soul  of  faith 
and  love  in  every  one's  breast.  Here  the 
preacher  has  really  no  competitor.  There 
is  something  in  the  living  voice  of  the  true 
prophet  that  thrills  us  as  nothing  else  can. 
We  may  be  rich  and  increased  with  goods 
and  yet  have  need  of  everything.  Poverty 
is  not  the  most  fatal  enemy  of  empires. 
The  great  empires  of  yesterday  did  not  go 
to  their  ruin  because  of  any  lack  of  wealth. 


THE  SERVANT  OF  THE  SPIRIT  43 

They  were  on  the  contrary  enervated  by  lux- 
ury. They  perished,  like  Hamlet's  father, 
"full  of  bread."  They  declined  and  fell  for 
lack  of  "  soul."  Where  there  is  no  "  vision  " 
the  people  perish.  The  appearance  of  a  true 
preacher  is  the  greatest  gift  that  any  nation 
can  have.  By  his  presence,  and  his  spirit, 
he  multiplies  the  fighting  forces  for  righteous- 
ness indefinitely.  John  Knox's  voice  was 
as  the  sound  of  a  trumpet.  When  Luther 
rode  to  Worms,  every  timid  believer  in  the 
Reformation  plucked  up  heart  to  speak  and 
act  more  boldly.  When  Cromwell  arrived 
on  Marston  Moor,  the  historian  tells  us  that  a 
great  shout  went  up  in  the  Puritan  camp 
which  was  the  presage  of  victory.  It  was 
more.  It  was  victory.  What  Washington 
and  Lincoln  were  to  your  own  heroic  fathers 
in  their  day  of  trial,  men  of  faith,  men  of 
soul,  men  of  God,  are  to  all  hard-pressed 
Christian  causes  and  all  humane  enterprises. 
It  is  this  force  that  we  call  "  soul  "  that  is 
the  motive-power  of  all  progress  ;  that  turns 
all  the  wheels  that  ever  do  turn  to  any 
noble   purpose.     "The  words  that  I  speak 


%^ 


44  THE   ROMANCE   OF   PREACHING 

unto  you,"  said  Jesus,  "  they  are  soul."  As 
a  mere  matter  of  fact  He  has  kept  the  soul 
of  the  world  alive.  As  John  Morley  wrote 
many  years  ago,  "  The  spiritual  life  of  the 
West  has  burned  during  all  these  centuries 
with  the  pure  flame  first  kindled  by  the 
sublime  Mystic  of  the  Galilaean  Hills." 

This  is  our  business — the  business  which 
all  the  parliaments  of  the  world  are  powerless 
to  transact.  I  might  have  called  the  subject 
of  these  lectures,  in  which  I  hope  to  review 
some  of  the  more  notable  preaching  exploits 
of  history,  "  Keeping  the  soul  of  the  world 
alive."  I  have  preferred  to  call  it  "The 
Romance  of  Preaching."  Frankly,  I  fear 
that  in  these  modern  days  we  have  been 
losing  our  sense  of  the  splendid  possibilities 
of  our  vocation.  The  thought  of  it  does  not 
thrill  us.  We  do  not  go  down  to  our  work 
as  we  should,  with  our  hearts  beating  high 
for  the  wonder  and  the  hope  of  the  adven- 
tures. We  tend  to  become  slaves  to  the 
routine  of  it.  Once  we  were  alive  in  the  age 
of  miracles.  By  "  the  vision  splendid  "  we 
were  "  on  our  way  attended."    But  the  beauty 


THE   SERVANT   OF  THE   SPIRIT  45 

is  off  the  morning  sky,  the  glow  of  the  dawn 
is  past.     We  have 

"  seen  it  die  away 
And  fade  into  the  light  of  common  day." 

There  is  no  tragedy  in  all  the  world  like 
the  disillusioned  minister.  He  has  to  keep 
on  preaching.  His  congregation  is  often 
weary ;  but  no  one  is  so  heavy  of  heart  as  he 
is.  "  What  a  genius  I  was,"  cried  Swift, 
"  when  I  wrote  that  book ! "  referring  to  a 
work  of  his  early  prime.  Millais,  in  the 
presence  of  a  collection  of  the  pictures  repre- 
sentative of  the  splendid  idealism  of  his 
youth,  burst  into  tears  and  rushed  out  of  the 
building.  Somehow,  so  many  of  us  are 
strangers  to  the  truth  of  Paul's  affirmation 
that  "  experience  worketh  Hope."  So  many 
have  gathered  doubt  and  even  despondency 
as  the  fruit  of  that  tree.  So  we  begin  to 
envy  other  men  their  tasks.  The  physician 
who  with  reverent  hands  and  spirit  repairs 
the  temple  of  the  body ;  the  lawyer  who 
serves  the  ideals  of  justice  ;  the  statesman 
who   helps   to   rear   the  fabric  of  a  nation's 


46  THE  ROMANCE  OF  PREACHING 

prosperity  or  a  world's  peace  ;  the  explorer 
and  the  engineer  who  between  them  prospect 
and  build  the  roads  for  a  higher  civilization 
— all  these  we  begin  to  believe  are  following 
the  gleam  with  nobler  ambitions  and  to  a 
more  glorious  goal. 

That,  in  part,  is  why  youth  does  not  rally 
to  the  call  of  the  ministry  to-day,  and  why 
the  preacher's  face  is  all  too  often  in  the 
shadow.  The  time  has  surely  come  to  sound 
another  note.  Who  should  be  proud  of  their 
calling  if  not  we  ?  What  other  history  has 
ever  equalled  ours?  Think  of  the  procession 
of  the  preachers !  No  range  of  mountains 
has  been  high  enough  to  stay  their  progress ; 
no  rivers  deep  and  broad  enough  to  daunt 
them  ;  no  forests  dark  and  dense  enough  to 
withstand  their  advance.  No  poet  has  ever 
sung  the  epic  of  their  sacrifices.  Was  ever 
such  a  romance  ?  Was  ever  love  exalted  to 
so  pure  a  passion  ?  Was  ever  in  the  human 
soul  so  unquenchable  a  fire  ?  Silver  and  gold 
they  had  none.  They  did  not  seek  to  win 
mankind  by  materialistic  gifts.  Such  as  they 
had  they  gave.     The  alms  they  distributed 


THE   SERVANT   OF  THE   SPIRIT  47 

were  faith,  hope,  love.  Wherever  they  went 
they  trod  a  pilgrim  road,  and  flung-  forth 
their  faith,  often  to  a  sceptical  and  scornful 
generation.  But  what  heeded  they?  They 
passed  onward  from  frontier  to  frontier,  *'  the 
legion  that  never  was  counted,"  and,  let  us 
add,  that  never  knew  defeat. 

Gradually  before  their  message,  ancient 
pagan  empires  tottered,  heathen  despots 
bowed  the  head,  in  the  lands  of  Goth  and 
Vandal  stately  cathedrals  reared  their  splen- 
did towers  and  spires,  and  the  battle  music 
of  the  Christian  crusade  rang  triumphantly 
in  chiming  bells  and  pealing  organs  over 
conquered  races.  In  the  recesses  of  Indian 
forests,  up  the  dark  rivers  of  Africa  and 
South  America  that  often  flowed  red,  along 
the  frozen  coast  of  Greenland  and  Labrador, 
the  pioneer  preachers  made  their  pilgrimage. 
Let  every  village  preacher  who  climbs  into  a 
rude  rostrum,  to  give  out  a  text  and  preach 
a  sermon  to  a  meagre  handful  of  somewhat 
stolid  hearers,  remember  to  what  majestic 
Fraternity  he  belongs,  and  what  romantic 
traditions  he  inherits.     He,  too,  is  the  servant 


48  THE   ROMANCE  OF  PREACHING 

of  the  spirit.  He,  too,  does  his  work  in  the 
land  of  Romance.  Many  modern  influences 
have  tried  to  kill  the  consciousness  of  this 
truth.  Even  the  churches  do  not  always 
allow  us  to  realize  it.  Materialism  and  ra- 
tionalism would  fain  lay  sacrilegious  hands 
upon  our  task,  and  secularize  it.  But  the 
true  Prophet  has  that  within  his  soul  which 
no  external  adversaries  can  destroy. 

"  I  see  my  call !     It  gleams  ahead 

Like  sunshine  through  a  loophole  shed  ! 
I  know  my  Task  ;  these  demons  slain 
The  sick  earth  shall  grow  sound  again  ; — 
Once  let  them  to  the  grave  be  given. 
The  fever-fumes  of  Earth  shall  fly  ! 
Up,  Soul,  array  thee  !     Sword  from  thigh  ! 
To  battle  for  the  heirs  of  Heaven  !  " 


LECTURE  II 
THE  FIRST  OF  THE  PROPHETS 


LECTURE  II 
THE  FIRST  OF  THE  PROPHETS 

THE  Prophet  stood  in  the  old  world 
as  a  mysterious  and  romantic  fig- 
ure, played  upon  by  strange  and  sub- 
lime lights,  his  speech  charged  with  subtle 
meanings,  his  life  commissioned  out  of  the 
supernatural  for  surprising  and  perilous  er- 
rands. His  is  by  far  the  most  arresting  fig- 
ure in  the  Old  Testament.  When  he  takes 
the  stage  all  other  actors  are  dwarfed.  If  he 
is  not  there,  time  itself  seems  to  wait  for  his 
appearance.  Prince  and  priest  alike  are  in- 
significant in  his  majestic  presence.  In  his 
highest  exemplars  both  his  words  and  his 
deeds  are  memorable.  His  interventions,  his 
appearances  mark  the  crises  of  history.  His 
words  set  the  standard  of  thought  for  genera- 
tions. With  the  people  he  is  by  no  means 
always  popular.  He  has  no  genius  for 
smooth  speech.  He  flatters  neither  monarch 
nor  mob  ;  and  nations  have  seldom  loved  the 
51 


52  THE  ROMANCE  OF  PREACHING 

uncompromising  truth.  He  appears  on  the 
canvas  of  Holy  Writ  as  the  clear-sighted 
enemy  of  powerful,  selfish,  vested  interests ; 
and  the  passages  are  yet  to  be  discovered  in 
which  he  pronounces  blessing  on  the  rich. 
The  language  he  holds  is  scathing  and  pas- 
sionate ;  and  in  many  cases  the  denunciations 
are  more  frequent  than  the  consolations.  Mr. 
Matthew  Arnold  would  perhaps  have  called 
the  prophet  a  Philistine ;  but  imagination 
fails  to  conceive  what  the  prophet  would  have 
called  Mr.  Matthew  Arnold. 

But  whatever  be  the  type  of  mission  and 
of  personality,  the  prophet  dominates  the  life 
of  his  time.  Wherever  and  whenever  he  ap- 
pears men's  souls  are  stirred,  and  there  is  a 
shaking  of  the  dry  bones.  We  realize  that 
he  awes  even  the  worldly-minded.  He  fixes 
men's  thoughts  on  serious  issues.  He  rebukes 
their  triviality  and  flippancy.  He  brings  a 
breath  of  reality  into  ordinary  conversation. 
He  confronts  the  careless  and  frivolous  with 
the  claims  of  the  Eternal.  We  realize,  too, 
that  the  great  prophets  had  a  genius  for  the 
unexpected  and  the  unconventional.     They 


THE   FIRST   OF  THE   PROPHETS  53 

ignored  tradition.  They  were  fiery  icono- 
clasts, intolerant  of  illusions  however  fashion- 
able. They  had  no  excessive  respect  for  the 
orthodoxy  so-called  of  the  rigid  schools  of  the 
Rabbis.  Of  ceremonies  and  ordinances  as 
you  know  they  were  apt  to  speak  with  very 
slight  respect.  The  tendency  of  religion  in 
all  ages  to  stereotype  its  forms  and  formulas 
was  viewed  by  the  prophets  as  an  insidious 
evil.  Thus  it  was  never  long  before  they  had 
arrayed  against  them  all  those  who  were 
keenly  interested  in  the  preservation  of  the 
old  order  of  things.  For  the  prophet  was  al- 
ways and  everywhere  a  reformer,  zealous  to 
reconstruct  life  as  it  is  so  that  it  might  more 
perfectly  express  the  will  of  God. 

You  will  bear  this  in  mind  also,  that  even 
when  the  people  believed  but  little  in  their 
prophet,  the  true  prophet  never  faltered  in  his 
behef  in  the  people.  He  knew  their  souls 
were  soil  adapted  to  the  seed.  He  knew 
that  they  were  capable  of  all  the  aspirations 
and  all  the  heroisms  which  they  habitually 
professed  to  despise.  He  knew  that  their  ag- 
nosticism was  superficial,  and  their  contempt 


54  THE   ROMANCE  OF   PREACHING 

of  idealism  a  pose.  Let  any  genuine  voice 
reach  tliem  and  thrill  them,  or  let  some  great 
crisis  shatter  their  slumbers,  and  their  affecta- 
tions, and  all  the  inferior  creeds  would  go 
down  before  the  resistless  tide  of  spiritual 
feeling.  Unless  there  is  in  men  and  women 
this  capacity  of  re-birth  the  preacher's  work 
everywhere  is  vain  ;  we  may  as  well  dismantle 
our  pulpits,  and  recognize  that  human  prog- 
ress is  a  delusive  hope.  So  Thomas  Carlyle 
exclaims  concerning  the  European  Reforma- 
tion :  "  Nations  are  benefited,  I  believe,  for 
ages  by  being  thrown  into  divine  white  heat 
in  this  manner,  and  no  nation  that  has  not 
had  such  divine  paroxysms  at  any  time  is  apt 
to  come  to  much."  The  preacher,  it  is  true, 
may  feel  himself  to  be,  in  the  beginning,  only 
a  voice  crying  in  the  wilderness,  but  he  also 
believes  that  the  desert  can  rejoice  and  blos- 
som as  the  rose.  That  is  to  say,  he  believes 
that  actual  desert  is  potential  Eden  ;  and  that 
all  that  is  needed  to  effect  the  miracle  is  the 
cooperant  forces  of  what  we  describe  as  the 
Sun  of  Righteousness  and  the  Water  of 
Life. 


THE   FIRST   OF  THE   PROPHETS  55 

This  inspired  visionary,  with  his  radiant  be- 
lief in  transfigured  deserts, — in  sandy  and  bar- 
ren wastes  gay  with  lilies  and  roses — is  surely 
the  very  insuppressible  hero  of  Romance. 
He  walks  the  mean  streets  and  dreary  paths 
of  modern  industrial  districts,  with  the  same 
high  confidence  that  lighted  the  face  of  Isaiah 
amid  the  desert  of  commercialized  Judaism, 
in  the  unspiritual  environment  of  ancient 
Babylon.  For  he  believes  in  his  people  ;  he  is 
sure  of  his  audience.  It  is  nothing  to  him  that 
they  do  not  believe  in  themselves.  It  is  noth- 
ing to  him  that  the  soil  to  be  cultivated  is  so 
heavy  and  obstinate  a  clay,  orso  barren  awaste. 
The  more  unpromising  the  material,  the  more 
smiling  is  his  prevision  of  success.  This, 
surely,  is  the  element  of  futurity  about  the 
prophet's  message  which  has  often  been 
fiercely  debated.  He  is  more  than  a  forth- 
teller.  He  is  a  fore-teller.  He  does  "dip 
into  the  future."  It  is  given  to  him  to  see  the 
end  from  the  beginning.  More  certainly 
than  the  scientist  with  boasted  precision  can 
dogmatize  on  the  ultimate  product  in  the  total 
process  of  cause  and  effect,  the  prophet  fore- 


56  THE   ROMANCE   OF   PREACHING 

sees  and  foretells  the  inevitable  transforma- 
tions that  will  be  produced  upon  the  desert 
of  unbelief  and  unrighteousness,  by  the  opera- 
tion of  the  Divine  Spirit. 

But  let  us  leave  these  generalizations  and 
make  a  more  close  and  detailed  study  of 
the  first  great  master  of  the  art  of  the  prophet 
as  he  is  portrayed  for  us  in  the  Book  of  Ex- 
odus. To  those  who  frankly  disbelieve  that 
the  message  of  God  to  man  is  even  more  than 
the  call  to  personal  regeneration,  and  who 
are  aghast  at  the  idea  of  the  preacher  being 
made  the  instrument  of  popular  liberty  and 
social  reconstruction,  the  mission  and  message 
of  Moses  must  be  the  source  of  endless  diffi- 
culty. On  what  theory  they  rely  for  explain- 
ing away  this  man  and  his  work  I  have  no 
notion.  But  to  the  candid  student  who  holds 
no  brief  for,  or  against,  any  particular  theory, 
the  story  of  Moses  is  surely  one  of  the  most 
luminous  and  thrilling  in  human  history. 

I  need  not  dwell  here  on  the  romantic  cir- 
cumstances of  his  preservation  from  death, 
and  his  transfer  from  the  hovel  of  the  slave 
to  the  palace  of  the  Pharaoh.     His  education 


THE   FIRST   OF   THE   PROPHETS  57 

is  more  to  the  point.  Do  not  fail  to  note 
that  the  Scripture  assumes  that  it  belonged 
to  the  will  and  purpose  of  Providence  that 
this  first  great  Hebrew  prophet  should  be  in- 
structed in  all  the  lore  of  the  Egyptians. 
There  was  no  prejudice  against  what  is 
sometimes  derided  as  pagan  or  classical  cul- 
ture. Familiarity  with  the  thoughts  and 
imaginations  of  great  men  is  taken  as  an  in- 
valuable preparation  for  the  preacher's  work, 
even  when  these  thinkers  belong  to  a  very 
different  school  of  religious  philosophy. 
Like  the  apostle  Paul,  his  mental  powers  are 
trained  and  disciplined  in  the  wisdom  of  the 
ancients,  but  his  personality  and  his  expe- 
rience are  his  own  ;  and  so  far  as  we  can  see, 
he  is  never  in  any  danger  of  surrendering  his 
personality  or  depreciating  his  experience. 

His  nearest  successor  in  modern  times  was 
John  Wesley  whose  whole  preaching  was 
coloured  by  his  classical  learning,  who 
abounded  in  illustrations  drawn  from  the 
ancients,  and  yet  the  originality  of  whose 
spiritual  experience  was  the  secret  of  his 
unique  influence  over  his  generation.     It  can 


58  THE   ROMANCE   OF   PREACHING 

never  be  necessary  in  this  atmosphere  to  pro- 
test against  any  and  every  theory  that  makes 
light  of  an  educated  ministry,  and  that  as- 
sumes that  Providence  prefers  to  let  loose 
upon  an  unsophisticated  generation  the  man 
of  undisciplined  mind.  I  shall  have  more  to 
say  on  this  subject  when  I  come  to  deal  with 
the  Romance  of  Evangelism.  But  for  the 
present  let  me  lay  it  down  that  there  is  noth- 
ing in  Holy  Writ  to  warrant  the  assumption 
that  a  man  is  likely  to  be  more  spiritual  if  he 
is  an  ignoramus  ;  or  that  prophetic  power  in 
the  pulpit  especially  attaches  to  the  preacher 
whose  heart  is  full  and  whose  head  is  empty. 
Knowledge  is  really  not  a  disqualification  for 
the  ministry  ;  neither  is  there  any  incompati- 
bility between  the  seer  and  the  scholar.  Be- 
cause Festus  chose  to  assume  that  much 
learning  had  made  Paul  mad,  we  need  not  be 
seriously  afraid  that  a  similar  cause  will  be 
likely  to  produce  that  effect  in  us.  That 
Moses  brought  to  his  great  democratic  task 
a  finely  trained,  balanced  and  disciplined  in- 
tellect was  of  immeasurable  value  to  him,  and 
gave  him  at  once  a  portion  of  personal  as- 


THE   FIRST   OF  THE   PROPHETS  59 

cendency  when  he  came  to  deal  with  those 
whose  misfortune  it  was,  that  they  had  been 
deprived  of  his  advantages. 

But  on  the  most  vital  point  of  all,  the  Scrip- 
ture narrative  is  emphatic.  No  weight  of 
learning,  no  insight  into  alien  creeds,  and  no 
increase  of  social  prestige  injured  his  human- 
ity. In  the  court  atmosphere  that  he 
breathed,  and  under  the  tuition  of  the  Egyp- 
tian scholars,  he  did  not  lose  his  capacity  for 
indignation,  his  passionate  hatred  of  oppres- 
sion and  love  of  liberty.  Neither  did  his  own 
prosperity  make  him  forgetful  of  those  who 
were  the  victims  of  cruelty,  and  apparently 
in  the  grip  of  an  inexorable  fate.  His  eulo- 
gists were  wont  to  celebrate  the  meekness 
and  patience  of  his  later  days.  But  I  do  not 
think  I  am  wrong  in  saying  that  in  every 
true  prophet  there  is  something  volcanic. 
Well  is  it  for  all  of  us  when  our  primal  in- 
stincts remain  intact,  however  thoroughly  we 
may  master  the  lessons  of  self-control. 
Moses  in  his  young  manhood  betrays  the 
depths  of  his  humanity — his  elemental  hatred 
of  oppression  ;  but  I  ask  you  to  observe  that 


6o  THE   ROMANCE   OF   PREACHING 

when  he  fled  from  the  consequences  of  his 
own  rough  blow  struck  for  justice  and  free- 
dom, he  is  guided  to  a  solitude  where  he 
might  think  out  his  problem.  For  the  prob- 
lem was  not  only  to  avenge  one  wrong  but 
to  destroy  the  system  that  authorized  the 
wrong.  After  all  it  was  a  poor  thing  merely 
to  strike  down  the  agent  of  Pharaoh's  tyr- 
anny. The  war  Moses  had  to  wage  was 
against  the  throned  iniquity,  the  entrenched 
and  panoplied  injustice  that  had  behind  it  all 
the  force  of  organized  authority,  and  all  the 
glamour  of  a  throne.  In  other  words,  the 
problem  for  this  Man  of  destiny  was  how  to 
end  an  iron  despotism  and  substitute  an 
brder  of  justice,  freedom  and  humanity.  No 
preacher  into  whose  soul  God's  light  has 
penetrated  will  ever  content  himself  with 
seeking  the  deliverance  of  the  individual,  so 
long  as  systems  of  wrong  are  allowed  to 
stand  which  have  issue,  generation  after  gen- 
eration, in  the  demoralization  of  human  na- 
ture, and  the  consequent  perpetuation  of  in- 
justice. 

The  next  stage  in  the  ordeal  of  Moses  may 


THE   FIRST   OF  THE   PROPHETS  6l 

be  described  as  his  fight  against  his  destiny. 
For  it  has  always  been  true  that  God's  best 
ministers  tal<:e  up  their  commission  under  a 
sense  of  compulsion.  They  cannot  easily 
believe  that  this  awful  and  sublime  call  is  to 
them.  They  are  conscious  of  no  capacity  in 
their  nature  equal  to  so  tremendous  a  voca- 
tion. They  are  driven  out  on  to  these  great 
waters,  where  the  Divine  business  is  to  be 
done,  under  stress  of  storm.  It  needs  the 
utter  maximum  of  revelation  to  convince  us 
that  we  are  actually  the  elect  of  God  for  tasks 
so  mighty.  Like  Moses,  we  plead  nature's 
bar,  and  cry  "  Impossible  1 "  "  O  Lord,  I  am 
not  eloquent.  .  .  .  And  the  Lord  said. 
Who  hath  made  man's  mouth,  is  it  not  I  the 
Lord  ?  "  Science  has  laboured  in  our  time  to 
make  a  Gospel  out  of  natural  selection.  But 
this  Gospel  of  supernatural  election  is  a 
greater  one.  God's  miracles  are  wrought  by 
those  who,  in  spite  of  themselves,  do  the  hu- 
manly impossible. 

You  remember  a  passage  in  one  of  Mr. 
Augustine  Birrell's  essays  in  which  he  re- 
minds us  that  the  poet  Gray  longed  to  be  a 


62  THE  ROMANCE  OF  PREACHING 

soldier  ;  he  wrote  the  immortal  elegy  but  he 
took  no  Quebec  ;  General  Wolfe  took  Quebec, 
and  with  his  latest  breath  declared  he  would 
rather  have  written  Gray's  elegy.  Not 
natural  selection,  but  divine  election  !  Fred- 
erick William  Robertson  broke  his  heart  be- 
cause he  might  not  be  a  soldier  ;  and  was 
constrained  into  the  office  of  prophet  by  in- 
fluences he  could  not  comprehend.  Yet,  so 
coerced  in  spirit,  he  preached  ;  and  did  more 
than  any  other  of  his  time  to  create  a  new 
birth  of  faith.  Not  natural  selection  but 
supernatural  election.  Strange  as  it  seems, 
and  paradoxical,  God's  noblest  warriors  have 
felt  like  pressed  men.  Said  a  young  fellow 
once  before  a  college  committee  when  asked 
why  he  wanted  to  enter  the  ministry,  '*  Be- 
cause all  other  ambitions  went  down  before 
the  revelation  of  life  in  Christ."  The  other 
ambitions  have  to  go  down.  The  one  and 
only  ambition  that  is  big  enough  to  over- 
whelm all  others  has  to  master  and  possess 
the  preacher.  I  know  nothing  in  history 
more  impressive  than  the  resistless  way  in 
wliich  God  urges  His  claims ;  how  He  seems 


THE   FIRST   OF  THE   PROPHETS  63 

to  shut  in  the  man  to  the  task,  and  sweep 
away  his  objections  and  hesitations  hke  chaff 
before  the  wind. 

"  So  nigh  is  grandeur  to  the  dust, 
So  near  is  God  to  man, 
When  Duty  whispers  low,  'Thou  must,' 
The  soul  replies,  '  I  can.'  " 

It  is  that  determinative  "  thou  must " 
that  Hes  behind  the  consecrated  audacity  of 
the  prophet,  and  lends  strange  fire  to  his 
words. 

Surely  there  is  no  prayer  more  appropriate 
to  any  one  who  feels  the  inner  urging  of  the 
spirit  towards  the  office  of  the  preacher  than 
the  famous  one  of  Augustine — "  O  God,  give 
what  Thou  commandest  and  then  command 
what  Thou  wilt."  When  we  are  ready  to 
cry  out  with  Moses,  "  I  cannot  go,  I  have  not 
the  gift,  I  should  only  bring  dishonour  upon 
the  cause,"  the  answer  is,  "  The  gift  is  in  the 
good  pleasure  of  the  Giver."  Certain  it  is 
He  will  send  no  man  on  any  errand  of  His, 
without  the  ability  to  discharge  it. 

Yet  this  diffidence  on  the  threshold  is  surely 


64  THE   ROMANCE   OF  PREACHING 

a  sign  of  grace.  We  notice  it  not  only  in 
Moses  but  in  Jeremiah,  in  Zechariah  and  in 
Paul.  They  require  to  be  convinced  that 
they  are  not  being  tempted  to  build  the  most 
responsible  and  difficult  of  all  lives  on  mere 
raw  impulse.  They  are  resolved  to  hold  no 
illusions  as  to  their  own  character  and  ca- 
pacity. They  weigh,  and  measure  up,  their 
powers  and  talents  with  scrupulous  exacti- 
tude. They  .disguise  none  of  their  deficien- 
cies. They  do  full  justice  to  the  magnitude 
of  the  work  required  of  them.  Then  with 
genuine  humiHty  they  object  their  insuffi- 
ciency for  the  task.  Only  men  who  have  ap- 
proached the  ministry  in  this  spirit  have  had 
their  souls  and  wills  purged  from  the  alloy  of 
false  and  base  ambitions.  But  at  the  last, 
Moses  is  made  to  see  that  his  mistrust  of  self 
and  his  fear  of  failure,  alike  spring  from  an 
imperfect  knowledge  of  God  and  partial  sur- 
render to  His  will.  The  one  thing  lacking 
in  the  special  education  of  Moses  for  the 
crisis  in  history  which  he  has  to  handle  is 
Revelation.  The  solution  of  Israel's  social 
problem  lies  precisely  where  the  solutions  of 


THE  FIRST  OF  THE   PROPHETS  65 

all  social  troubles  lie, — in  the  knowledge  of 
God  and  of  His  will. 

It  is  this  experience  to  which  the  next 
chapter  in  his  education  is  sacred.  The 
special  gift  that  is  to  fit  him  for  his  ambas- 
sadorship is  God's  revealed  secret  to  him — a 
new  knowledge  of  God  which  former  genera- 
tions had  not  known,  nor  needed  to  know,  but 
which  was  revealed  to  him,  Moses,  because 
without  it  he  could  not  accompHsh  his  task. 
It  is  well  to  take  note  of  the  actual  words  as 
they  are  given  us  in  the  Book  of  the  Exodus. 
The  passages  are  gathered  from  two  chapters. 
To  the  petition  of  Moses  for  new  light  on  the 
nature  of  God  the  answer  is,  "  I  AM  hath  sent 
thee  "  ;  and  it  dawns  on  this  young  Liberator 
that  this  mystic  message  contains  a  new  truth 
of  pregnant  meaning — "  I  am  the  Lord  ;  I 
appeared  unto  Abraham,  Isaac  and  Jacob  by 
the  name  of  God  Almighty  but  by  my  name 
Jehovah  was  I  not  known  to  them."  This 
spiritual  crisis  in  the  personal  preparation  of 
the  prophet  for  his  work  is  worthy  of  your 
attention.  By  some  flash  of  inner  light  he  is 
conscious   of  out  distancing   the   greatest  of 


66  THE   ROMANCE   OF   PREACHING 

his  predecessors.  Some  new  conviction  is 
burned  into  liis  brain.  He  is  literally  on  fire 
with  a  new  ideal. 

"  O  glory  of  the  lighted  mind," 

exclaims  Mr.  Masefield's  converted  hero  in 
"  The  Everlasting  Mercy."  There  is  no  glory 
equal  to  it.  In  that  hour  Moses  became  a 
seer,  and  stands  illuminated  with  the  glory  of 
the  lighted  mind. 

In  the  first  place  it  is  a  great  thing  to 
know  by  actual  verification  that  Revelation  is 
progressive. 

"  Each  generation  learned 
Some   new  word    of  that   great    Credo    which   in 

prophet  hearts  has  burned 
Since  the  first  man  stood  God-conquered  with  his 

face  to  Heaven  upturned." 

It  is  one  thing  to  believe  that  as  a  theological 
proposition  ;  it  is  quite  another  thing  to  know 
its  truth  in  some  hour  of  exalted  vision.  This 
is  the  very  soul  of  religion.  It  thrills  us  in 
those  majestic  words  which  form  the  stately 
exordium    of    the    Epistle   to   the    Hebrews, 


THE   FIRST   OF  THE   PROPHETS  67 

**  God  who  at  sundry  times  and  in  divers 
manners  spake  in  time  past  unto  the  fathers 
by  the  prophets  hath  in  these  latter  days 
spoken  unto  us  by  His  Son."  "  God  hath 
spoken."  This  is  the  Hfe  of  truth.  God  hath 
spoken  to  us.  The  Divine  word  has  become 
cogent  and  pertinent  to  our  hfe  and  our  need. 
Something  of  the  infinite  reserve  of  truth 
has  been  specially  disclosed  for  our  enlighten- 
ment. We  are  not  the  disciples  of  a  closed 
canon.  Do  not  the  astronomers  tell  us 
that  we  live  in  so  splendid  and  spacious  a 
physical  universe  that  not  a  year  passes  but 
the  light  from  some  new  star,  some  effluence 
out  of  the  Infinite,  reaches  our  world  and 
adds  to  our  perception  of  the  wealth  of  the 
Eternal  ?  And  are  we  to  suppose  that  the 
spiritual  universe  is  less  august?  and  that 
those  rays  that  speak  of  realities  old  as  the 
worlds  yet  new  to  our  ken,  may  not  reach  our 
souls  to-day,  and  continue  to  illumine  with 
fresh  radiance  the  spirits  of  the  generations 
yet  unborn  ?  We  are  the  heirs  of  progressive 
revelation.  We  are  admitted  to  know 
secrets  withheld  from  the  knowledge  of  our 


68  THE   ROMANCE   OF   PREACHING 

sainted  sires.  We  are  always  knowing  God. 
To  know  Him  is  the  life  which  is  life  indeed. 
The  special  revelation  that  lighted  the 
mind  of  Moses  and  made  him  a  prophet  lay  in 
the  name  of  God — the  I  AM,  the  Eternal  Pres- 
ence ;  or  as  Dr.  Fairbairn  more  truly  phrases 
it,  "  He  who  causes  to  be."  This  is  the 
Vision  of  the  Immanent  Deity  without  whom 
there  is  no  existence  and  no  progress  ;  and 
who  has  not  made  either  the  world  or  human- 
ity but  is  ever  making  them.  This  is  the 
Vision  of  the  Will  that  rolls  through  all 
things,  moulding  and  making  all  that  is. 
The  soul  that  is  one  with  that  Will  is  lifted 
above  fear  and  failure.  For  him  the  Present 
is  alive  with  God ;  and  the  Future  is  forever 
with  Him.  That  is  the  faith  with  which  to 
conquer  the  hell  of  slavery  ;  that  is  the  vision 
to  give  hope  and  patience  to  the  Reformer 
whose  business  it  is  not  only  to  deliver  the 
people's  bodies  from  bondage  but  their  souls 
from  the  curse  of  captivity.  *'  I  Am  hath 
sent  thee."  It  is  not  very  far  from  that 
revelation  to  the  central  Christian  faith — 
Emmanuel,  God  with  us. 


THE  FIRST  OF  THE   PROPHETS  69 

Here  then  is  our  man,  the  first  in  the 
august  line  of  the  prophetical  succession,  one 
who  of  his  own  choice  espouses  the  cause  of 
a  suffering  people,  who  for  the  sake  of  the 
enslaved  and  oppressed  eats  the  bread  of 
exile  and  servitude,  who  by  Divine  constraint 
takes  up  the  sacred  but  thankless  task  of 
liberator,  and  becomes  the  mouthpiece  of  the 
will  of  God  alike  to  tyrant  monarch  and  de- 
praved multitude.  He  is  the  servant  and 
spokesman  of  "  Him  who  causes  to  be."  On 
that  revelation  of  the  Divine  purpose  and  co- 
operation he  relies,  and  under  the  inspiration 
of  it  he  rises  to  a  sublime  height.  He  sees  that 
the  social  revolution  without  which  national 
emancipation  cannot  be  achieved  lies  within 
the  will  and  power  of  Him  who  causes  to  be. 
Henceforth  Moses  is  a  "  God-intoxicated " 
man.  But  so  far  from  being  a  visionary,  his 
spiritual  illumination  confers  practical  insight 
and  the  wisdom  of  statesmanship.  He  has 
not  only  to  persuade  a  dark,  degraded  and 
discouraged  people  that  their  social  misery 
is  not  irremediable  nor  their  spiritual  despair 
indestructible  if  only  faith  in  God  revives  in 


70  THE   ROMANCE   OF   PREACHING 

their  breasts;  but  he  has  somehow  to  lead 
them  up  from  the  depths  of  servitude  and 
fashion  for  them  a  religious  and  social 
system  which  shall  incorporate  and  express 
the  new  revelation  of  God  and  His  will. 

I  need  not  tell  you  that  our  inspired 
prophet  was  no  infallible  pope.  As  we  have 
seen  he  was  the  disciple  of  progressive  rev- 
elation, and  just  as  he  saw  truths  about 
God  that  had  been  concealed  from  his  fa- 
thers, so  the  generations  to  come  would  out- 
grow the  Mosaic  system  in  the  light  of  a 
still  purer  and  humaner  revelation.  Some- 
thing of  the  harshness  and  inhumanity  of  the 
heathenism  from  which  his  race  had  emerged 
betrays  itself  in  many  of  his  statutes.  But  it 
is  not  the  man's  limitations  that  astonish  us, 
but  his  almost  incredible  height  of  wisdom 
and  humanity,  standing  where  he  did.  And 
one  supreme  conviction  masters  him.  God 
X  I  must  rule  the  whole  life  of  man.  Nothing 
jthat  is  human  must  ever  lie  outside  the 
Idivine  governance.  That  is  why  he  brings 
the  will  of  God  to  bear  on  the  minutest  de- 
tails not  only  of  worship,  but  of  conduct. 


THE   FIRST   OF  THE   PROPHETS  7 1 

The  wonder  of  the  Mosaic  legislation  is 
not  in  the  provision  of  the  tabernacle  and 
the  elaborate  system  of  symbol  by  means  of 
which  he  designed  to  teach  a  people  of  very 
rudimentary  religious  education  the  spiritual 
and  moral  truths  he  himself  had  grasped  ;  the 
wonder  of  the  Mosaic  legislation  is  in  the 
new  social  and  economic  order  that  it 
created,  and  the  moral  code  that  was  to  hold 
therein.  First,  in  the  Decalogue,  he  not  only 
sweeps  away  by  solemn  enactment  all 
polytheism  and  idolatry,  but  all  external 
temptations  thereto.  Then  he  provides  by 
law  for  one  day's  rest  in  seven  for  everybody. 
Then  he  lends  the  sanction  of  rehgion  to 
that  respect  due  to  parents  which  is  the  key 
to  a  wholesome  family  life.  Then  he  legis- 
lates against  murder,  adultery,  theft  and 
scandal,  and  even  ventures  to  lay  the  divine 
law  upon  the  thoughts  and  imaginations  of 
the  heart  by  a  statute  against  those  envious 
desires  which  are  the  source  of  so  many 
deeds  of  unjust  aggrandizement. 

So  much  for  the  Decalogue.  But  there 
follows,  as  you  know,  the  most  elaborate  and 


72  THE   ROMANCE   OF   PREACHING 

interesting  series  of  statutes,  dealing  with 
various  classes  of  labour,  menservants  and 
maidservants,  for  whom  a  whole  charter  of 
rights,  exemptions  and  privileges  is  devised. 
He  faces  problems  as  to  the  responsibility  of 
those  who  are  the  unwitting  cause  of  in  jury- 
to  others.  He  is  rigorous  against  usury. 
He  safeguards  the  position  of  the  "  foreigner," 
and  enjoins  hospitality.  He  deals  with  the 
appointment  of  judges  and  decrees  the 
punishment  for  perjury.  He  sketches  the 
system  of  land  tenure  and  asserts  the  original 
and  inalienable  proprietorship  of  God.  He 
has  a  good  deal  to  say  as  to  the  conduct  of 
war,  and  while  his  words  are  in  places  dark 
and  fearful,  we  have  nevertheless  in  his 
statute  the  first  attempt  ever  made  to  hu- 
manize war  and  moderate  some  of  its  con- 
sequences. His  agrarian  legislation  includes 
details  as  to  the  cultivation  of  vineyards,  and 
methods  of  ploughing.  He  even  conde- 
scends to  the  character  and  quality  of  cloth- 
ing that  is  appropriate  to  the  life  of  the 
people ;  and  again  and  again  he  throws  the 
shelter  of  Divine  authority  about  the  life  and 


THE   FIRST  OF  THE   PROPHETS  73 

fortune  of  the  poor,  the  infirm  and  the 
"stranger";  as  well  as  around  the  dumb 
beasts  that  are  the  servants  of  mankind. 

Perhaps  I  may  be  allowed  to  interpolate 
here  that  my  argument  is  scarcely,  if  at  all, 
affected  by  the  most  advanced  criticism, 
assigning  much  that  has  been  included  in 
the  code  of  Moses  to  a  later  date.  It  is  really 
a  question  of  the  foundation  tradition  of  a 
great  people.  The  prophet  comes  upon  the 
scene  as  the  herald  of  a  theocracy.  His  soul 
is  alive  with  faith  in  the  kingdom  of  God. 
He  sees  that  government  by  God's  will  means 
not  only  the  acceptance  of  certain  beliefs,  and 
the  performance  of  certain  acts  of  worship, 
but  the  observance  of  certain  ethical  obliga- 
tions, and  the  organization  of  a  certain  social 
order.  The  tradition  of  the  Hebrew  nation 
was,  from  henceforth,  that  its  state  was 
founded  by  its  first  prophet ;  that  its  first 
statesman  and  legislator  was  one  who  re- 
ceived his  ideals  in  communion  with  God 
upon  the  Mount  of  Vision.  No  one  can  won- 
der that  the  successors  of  Moses  in  the  great 
prophetical  line  were  similarly  endowed  by 


74  THE   ROMANCE   OF   PREACHING 

the  spirit  for  momentous  political  errands. 
Hence  Samuel  crowns  and  discrowns  kings. 
Elijah,  flying  from  life  and  duty  to  Horeb, 
hears  commanding  words  bidding  him  re- 
turn to  the  thick  of  the  human  fray  "  and 
anoint  Hazael  to  be  king  over  Syria  and 
Jehu  the  son  of  Nimshi  to  be  king  over 
Israel."  So  he,  too,  becomes  the  instrument 
of  political  revolution,  and  the  mouthpiece 
of  the  creed  that  the  Lord  God  cares  how  the 
people  are  governed,  and  that  His  sover- 
eignty remains  unaffected '  by  the  particular 
mode  of  government  that  may  obtain  at  any 
time  and  in  any  land.  This  then  is  the  con- 
ception alike  of  the  work  of  the  preacher, 
and  of  the  ideal  constitution  of  a  people  that 
we  derive  from  the  Old  Testament ;  and  as  I 
hope  to  be  able  to  show  you  in  later  lectures, 
it  is  not  modified  by  any  teaching  or  prac- 
tice that  we  owe  to  the  New  Testament. 
The  whole  problem  of  good  government  is 
how  to  give  efTect  to  the  ideal  of  the  king- 
dom of  God.  The  problem  of  bad  govern- 
ment lies  in  the  men  who  have  lost  sight  of 
that  ideal. 


THE   FIRST   OF  THE   PROPHETS  75 

I  think  we  may  spare  a  few  more  thoughts 
for  the  problem  of  how  God  made  His  first 
great  prophet — the  leader  of  that  hero  race 
whose  deeds  and  words  belong  to  the  unper- 
ishable  glories  of  the  world.  You  and  I 
come  to  our  consideration  of  this  man  with 
questions  in  our  minds  which  we  shall  have 
to  answer,  and  in  regard  to  which  people  will 
look  to  us  for  guidance.  Yet  these  questions 
only  differ  in  degree  from  those  that  tortured 
the  soul  of  Moses  and  inspired  his  sacrifice 
and  devotion.  He  became  the  man  he  was 
because  he  saw  the  two  extremes  of  life,  its 
luxury  and  its  misery,  its  cruel  indefensible 
inequalities.  I  sometimes  think  no  man  is 
qualified  to  be  a  preacher  at  all  into  whose 
soul  that  iron  has  not  entered.  We  may 
state  our  economic  beliefs  to-day  in  more 
scientific  terms  than  Moses  could.  But  do 
we  feel  as  much  as  he  did  what  the  actual 
facts  mean  ?  Do  we  realize  the  poignancy  of 
the  contrast  ?  It  was  the  great  advantage  of 
this  embryo  prophet  that  he  lived  in  both 
worlds  ;  he  knew  the  want  at  one  end  of  the 
social  scale  and  the  ivaste  at  the  other.     He 


76  THE  ROMANCE  OF  PREACHING 

saw  that  the  pomp  and  splendour  of  the 
court  of  the  Pharaohs  was  all  sweated  out  of 
the  unpaid  labour  of  the  toilers.  He  saw  the 
inside  organization  of  a  vast  tyranny  which 
kept  multitudes  in  poverty  that  a  few  might 
revel  in  luxury  and  idleness.  He  saw  the 
scorn  and  contempt  of  the  exploiters  of  in- 
dustrialism for  those  on  whose  labour  they 
lived.  He  saw  all  these  things  ;  and  accord- 
ing to  a  modern  pietistic  school,  he  would 
have  done  his  duty  if  he  had  simply  preached 
the  existence  of  God,  and  had  taken  no  step 
to  break  up  this  iniquitous  order  and  give 
freedom  and  justice  to  the  people.  Fortu- 
nately for  the  Israelites  he  did  not  read  his 
destiny  and  duty  so. 

It  is  no  business  of  mine  to  suggest  what 
subjects  should  be  included  in  the  curriculum 
of  a  college  where  men  are  in  training  to  be 
preachers.  The  day  will  come,  I  suspect, 
when  a  course  of  instruction  on  social  condi- 
tions will  be  a  part  of  the  normal  education 
of  every  minister  of  religion.  But  desirable 
and  important  as  that  is,  you  cannot  nourish 
the  spirit  and  passion  of  a  Moses  simply  on  a 


THE  FIRST   OF  THE   PROPHETS  77 

diet  of  political  economy  and  social  statistics. 
What  counts  is  actual  experience  of  the 
cruelties  and  miseries  of  an  organized  society 
where  unbridled  prodigality  at  the  top,  is 
balanced  by  indescribable  poverty  at  the 
bottom.  The  course  of  study  I  would 
fain  include  in  the  curriculum  of  every 
modern  school  of  the  prophets  would  be  con- 
ducted in  a  tenement  district,  or  some  area 
where  men  and  women  live — or  exist — doing 
unending  tasks  for  starvation  wages.  If  to 
that  could  be  added  a  brief  course  of  study 
of  the  actual  lives  of  the  wealthy  dilettantists 
and  neurotics  who  make  up  so  large  a  portion 
of  what  is  called  Society,  we  should  breed  a 
race  of  prophets  who  would  be  our  leaders  in 
a  new  exodus  towards  a  new  land  of  promise. 
When  the  great  masses  of  our  peoples  are 
made  to  understand  that  our  preachers  are 
those  who  know  the  inwardness  of  their  life 
and  lot,  and  have  entered  into  close  brother- 
hood with  them  to  champion  their  right  to 
fullness  of  life  and  opportunity,  then  faith  will 
revive  in  our  lands  even  as  we  read  in  the 
time  of  Moses,  "  And  the  people  believed,  for 


78  THE   ROMANCE   OF   PREACHING 

when  they  saw  that  the  Lord  had  visited  His 
children,  and  had  seen  their  afflictions,  then 
they  bowed  their  heads  and  worshipped." 
Somewhere  in  your  literature  I  have  read 
the  story  of  a  scene  after  one  of  the  battles  of 
your  Civil  War.  The  rude  hospital  was 
crowded  and  the  surgeons  were  busy  with 
their  instruments  of  pain.  And  in  the  midst 
of  all  the  anguish  and  agony  there  stood  a 
fair  young  girl  who  had  devoted  herself  to 
the  task  of  nursing.  The  turn  of  one  of  the 
wounded  men  had  come,  and  his  operation 
had  to  be  faced.  He  said  he  thought  he 
could  bear  it  if  the  lady  would  come  and 
hold  his  hand.  And  she  went  where  he  lay, 
and  held  his  hand ;  watched  the  cold  beads 
stand  out  on  his  brow  ;  and  gathered  up  into 
her  heart  all  his  sufifering  and  pain.  If  the 
world  bears  its  sorrow  and  miseries  to-day 
with  some  measure  of  faith  and  fortitude  it  is 
because  the  Lord  Christ  has  stood,  during 
these  centuries,  by  the  bedside  of  a  suffering 
Humanity  and  held  its  hand,  and  gathered 
into  His  Divine  heart  its  pain,  its  grief,  and 
its  sin. 


THE   FIRST   OF  THE   PROPHETS  79 

Remember,  there  is  no  cheaper  way  than 
this  to  bring  about  a  revival  of  faith.  Faith 
is  often  crushed  out  of  the  hearts  of  people  by- 
harsh  and  unjust  social  conditions.  It  is  not 
unnatural  that  the  victims  of  these  conditions 
should  argue  from  man's  inhumanity  to  man 
either  that  the  God  who  permits  it  is  indif- 
ferent, or  that  there  is  no  God  since  He  does 
not  intervene.  It  is  little  use  to  go  to  such  as 
these  and  preach  the  theory  of  religion. 
Theology  is  a  fascinating  subject,  but  the 
formula  has  yet  to  be  invented  that  will 
satisfy  the  souls  of  those  who  are  suffering 
under  the  cruel  lash  of  injustice,  and  who  are 
the  prisoners  of  circumstance.  Some  one 
must  go  to  them  who  by  his  own  life  of 
brotherhood  and  practical  sympathy  will  in- 
terpret to  them  God's  redeeming  purposes. 
Some  one  must  do  what  Moses  did  for 
the  Israelites — consecrate  his  sympathy,  his 
sagacity,  and  his  energy  to  the  task  of  de- 
liverance, and  the  substitution  of  the  right  for 
the  wrong,  which  is  the  eternal  world-task  at 
which  all  must  labour. 

The  Old  Testament  introduces  us  broadly 


8o         THE   ROMANCE  OF  PREACHING 

to  two  orders  of  preachers.  Of  the  one 
Elijah  is  the  type  —  the  uncompromising 
individualist,  remote,  inaccessible,  ascetic. 
Ever  and  anon  he  descends  from  his  soli- 
tudes to  thunder  his  denunciations  against  an 
apostate  age.  But  he  knows  little  of  the 
people,  or  of  the  time.  He  is  apt  to  exag- 
gerate his  loneliness  in  righteousness.  He 
thinks  the  whole  land  has  gone  after  Baal 
while  all  the  time  there  are  seven  thousand 
non-conformists.  But  his  courage,  and  his 
austerity  make  him  a  power.  The  people 
gaze  with  awe  upon  his  face,  even  though 
they  look  with  relief  upon  his  back.  This  is 
a  great  type  of  preacher ;  but  I  question 
whether  it  is  the  type  that  is  most  welcome, 
or  most  potent.  Elijah  was  succeeded  by 
Elisha  ;  and  the  young  disciple  who  received 
for  endowment  a  double  portion  of  the  old 
preacher's  spirit  dedicated  himself  to  a 
totally  different  type  of  ministry.  He  was  a 
homely,  friendly  man,  whose  place  was  in  the 
hearts  and  homes  of  the  people. 

Think  of  the  facts  about  him  as  we  know 
them.     The  Shunammite  woman  knew  him 


THE   FIRST  OF  THE  PROPHETS  8 1 

as  the  one  man  in  the  land  who  would  under- 
stand what  the  loss  of  her  lad  meant  to  her. 
The  young  prophets,  eager  to  erect  their 
new  house,  put  their  arms  around  him,  and 
said,  "  Be  content,  and  go  with  us."  If  they 
had  acted  like  that  to  Elijah,  I  do  not  know 
which  would  have  been  the  more  uncomfort- 
able party,  the  old  prophet  or  the  young 
probationers.  When  the  widow  of  a  young 
preacher  comes  to  Elisha,  he  reads  her 
tragedy  in  shrewd  human  fashion.  "  What 
hast  thou  in  the  house?"  he  asks,  and  she 
answers  pathetically,  "  Thine  handmaid  hath 
not  anything  in  the  house,  save  a  pot  of  oil." 
When  the  Shunammite  woman  returned  after 
the  famine  to  find  her  lands  alienated,  he 
made  himself  at  once  her  champion,  and 
faced  the  king  with  the  demand,  "  Restore  to 
her  her  lands,  and  the  fruits  since  the  day  she 
left."  This  is  the  new  order  of  ministry. 
It  is  human,  social,  sympathetic.  Elisha 
knows  how  people  live,  enters  into  their 
joys,  shares  their  ambitions,  instinctively  dis- 
cerns their  privations,  and  will  not  see  them 
defrauded   of  their   rights.     Both   orders   of 


82  THE   ROMANCE   OF  PREACHING 

ministry  may  have  their  place ;  but  I  believe 
that  the  future  will  largely  be  the  inheritance 
of  the  latter.  We  are  returning  in  thought 
and  feeling  in  these  latter  days  to  the  ideal 
which  lies  behind  the  Book  of  the  Exodus, 
and  which  is  reflected  in  the  renunciation, 
the  practical  sympathy,  the  strenuous  and 
sagacious  leadership,  and  the  code  of  moral 
and  social  legislation,  of  the  first  of  the 
Prophets. 


LECTURE  III 
THE  APOSTOLIC  AGE 


nr 


LECTURE  III 
THE  APOSTOLIC  AGE 

HE  great  succession  of  the  Hebrew 
_  prophets  came  to  its  conclusion 
and  consummation  in  John  the 
Baptist.  He  was  of  the  school  of  Elijah.  He 
practiced  rigorous  austerities.  By  his  mode 
of  life  he  evidenced  the  contempt  in  which 
he  held  the  fashionable  habits  and  ambitions 
of  the  day.  The  simplicities  and  severities 
of  his  existence  harmonized  well  with  the 
type  of  ministry  to  which  he  knew  himself 
elect.  It  might  appear  from  the  substance 
of  his  preaching  that  he  knew  more  of  the 
necessity  for  repentance  and  reform  than  of 
the  secret  of  regeneration.  But  however  that 
may  be  he  had  no  new  vision  of  God  ;  and 
his  greatness  lay  in  the  sublime  humility  with 
which  he  pointed  the  people  away  from  him- 
self to  One  who  had  the  new  Gospel  that  was 
to  regenerate  humanity  and  change  the  world. 
Yet  John's  preaching  when  he  descended 
85 


86  THE   ROMANCE   OF   PREACHING 

from  the  mountain  solitudes  to  the  fords  of 
Jordan  is  worthy  of  your  study.  He  was 
one  of  those  fearless  and  clear-sighted  souls 
who  by  his  own  utter  sincerity,  spiritual  dis- 
cipline and  sacrificial  life,  had  earned  the 
right  to  strip  society  of  its  shams,  expose 
and  denounce  its  sins,  and  generally  become 
its  conscience  in  a  way  that  only  the  most 
absolutely  disinterested  and  single-minded 
men  can  ever  dare  to  do. 

I  have  said  there  was  nothing  exactly  new 
in  his  ministry.  His  call  to  repentance  was 
as  old  as  the  race.  The  spirit  and  forms  of 
asceticism  were  not  rare  among  his  prede- 
cessors. His  indifTerence  to  the  materialistic 
aims  on  which  most  men's  hearts  were  set 
was  a  genuine  note  of  prophethood,  but  by 
no  means  unique.  John's  significance  lies 
first  of  all  in  his  sense  of  the  nearness  of  the 
Messianic  kingdom  for  which  the  ages  had 
been  in  travail ;  and  secondly,  I  think,  in  a 
very  deep  and  true  view  of  the  social  evils 
which  had  sprung  from  the  corruption  of  re- 
ligion. His  first  movement  is  to  fling  down 
a  challenge  to  the  ecclesiastical  leaders  be- 


THE  APOSTOLIC  AGE  87 

cause  they  had  imbibed  the  worst  vices  of  a 
self-constituted  aristocracy.  The  senseless 
pride  in  blood  and  lineage,  the  perilous 
illusion,  **  We  have  Abraham  for  our  father," 
had  blinded  them  to  reality  and  wrought 
their  spiritual  ruin.  John's  sane  soul  recog- 
nized the  fatal  error  and  folly  which  have  so 
often  been  used  to  buttress  up  vast  and  illu- 
sive claims  whether  of  ancestral  descent  or 
spiritual  succession  ;  and  with  the  courage 
and  frankness  of  the  true  preacher  he  smote 
his  sword  through  this  web  of  lies.  "  God  is 
able  of  these  stones  to  raise  up  children  unto 
Abraham,"  he  cried ;  and  with  that  sharp 
final  epigram,  the  whole  baseless  fabric  of  an 
artificial  spiritual  aristocracy  crumbled  to  the 
dust. 

Then  he  turned  to  the  mixed  multitude, 
who  were  asking  to  be  shown  their  way  of 
life,  with  a  command  which  proved  him  as 
resolute  to  teach  equality  to  them  as  to 
the  religious  magnates  whom  he  had  just 
humbled.  "  He  that  hath  two  coats  let  him 
impart  to  him  that  hath  none,"  he  cried,  and 
left  them  to  digest  that  unwelcome  counsel  of 


88  THE   ROMANCE   OF  PREACHING 

socialism  as  best  they  could.  The  revenue- 
raisers  came  next,  and  the  Word  of  God  in 
the  person  of  John  was  heard  for  the  first 
time  in  the  New  Testament  in  denunciation 
of  "  graft."  This  thunderbolt  was  followed 
swiftly  by  another  when  he  flamed  out 
against  the  military  oppression  and  coercion 
which  in  Palestine  was  only  typical  of  the 
age-long  crucifixion  of  Right  at  the  hands  of 
Might.  With  a  final  affirmation  that  to  end 
this  reign  of  Wrong,  and  establish  the  King- 
dom of  Righteousness,  One  mightier  than  he 
was  needed,  and  was  on  the  way,  John  ended 
one  of  the  shortest  and  most  scathing  ser- 
mons of  which  there  is  any  record.  On  that 
mighty  canvas  of  history  where  the  figure  of 
the  Preacher  is  incomparably  the  most  ro- 
mantic of  all,  is  there  any  more  heroic  and 
pathetic  personality  than  this  son  of  the 
desert  with  his  ascetic  frame  and  soul  of  fire, 
bringing  his  ministry  to  a  consummation  in  a 
sublime  act  of  self-effacement,  and  with  cour- 
age unquenched  turning  his  back  on  all 
scenes  of  popularity,  and  setting  his  face  like 
a  flint  to  a  dungeon  and  a  scaffold  ? 


THE  APOSTOLIC  AGE  89 

I  am  now  to  invite  you  to  concentrate  your 
thought  on  the  amazing  era  of  apostolic 
preaching  which  followed  the  death  and  res- 
urrection of  our  Lord,  and  of  which  the  new 
vision  of  God  that  broke  over  the  souls  of  the 
first  disciples  was  the  creative  cause.  It  is 
common  ground  among  the  historians  that 
this  which  we  call  the  apostolic  age  is  the 
Romance  of  all  history.  The  story  is  of  a 
dozen  inspired  workmen,  who  were  lifted  by 
an  ineffable  experience  out  of  the  deepest 
depths  of  humiliation  and  shame  to  serene 
heights  of  faith,  whence  they  went  forth  to 
write  the  incomparable  epic  of  world-conquest. 
There  are  no  words  in  any  language  that  can 
express  how  dear  they  held  their  faith  and 
how  cheap  they  held  their  lives.  In  all  the 
instrumentalities  on  which  we  too  often  rely 
to  win  our  victories  they  took  no  stock. 
They  knew  nothing  of  art,  architecture,  or 
music,  nor  for  the  most  part  did  they  reck 
much  of  education.  They  met  the  mailed 
hand  of  Rome  unarmed  and  defenseless. 
With  no  material  weapon,  no  organized 
army,  no  display  of   force,  they   shook   the 


90  THE   ROMANCE   OF  PREACHING 

mightiest  of  world  empires  till  it  trembled  and 
tottered.  From  the  handful  of  recreant 
apostles  who  in  the  crisis  of  His  fate  had 
failed  their  Leader,  sprang  the  invincible 
legion  that  did  not  know  the  meaning  of 
fear,  and  that,  to  use  the  words  of  one  of  our 
own  Puritan  fathers  in  exile,  "  triumphed 
over  cruelty  with  courage,  over  persecution 
with  patience  and  over  death  itself  by  dying." 
Rome  had  conquered  every  race,  and  tram- 
pled upon  every  creed  only  to  be  baffled  by 
men  whose  bodies  she  could  burn  but  whose 
hate  she  could  not  provoke  ;  nay,  whose  love 
she  could  not  alienate.  When  the  sand  of  the 
Colosseum  was  red  with  their  blood  ;  when 
in  Nero's  gardens,  converted  into  torches,  they 
passed  through  smoke  and  flame  to  their  rest, 
their  message  swept  in  triumph  from  convert 
to  convert;  while  in  the  subterranean  seclu- 
sion of  the  catacombs  the  martyr  missionaries 
preached  and  prayed  and  signed  the  galleries 
of  Death  with  the  symbols  of  eternal  Hope. 

But  before  I  come  to  some  illustrations  of 
this  heroic  age,  there  is  a  preliminary  ques- 
tion   to    which    I   must  attempt  an  answer. 


THE  APOSTOLIC   AGE  9I- 

Let  me  ask  what  was  the  new  Revelation 
that  fired  men's  souls  with  such  sublime  faith 
and  fortitude?  What  was  the  new  music 
that  was  to  enchant  its  disciples  and  render 
them  insensitive  to  torture  and  death  ?  What 
was  it  that  came  to  them  through  the  Cross 
of  Christ,  and  possessed  them  with  a  spir- 
itual passion  to  which  all  history  provides  no 
parallel  ?  For  at  Pentecost  not  only  was 
faith  born  in  the  hearts  of  doubters,  and  cour- 
age in  the  hearts  of  cowards,  but  the  passion 
for  preaching  was  born  in  them  all.  •*  They 
all  spake  with  tongues,  and  prophesied." 
Every  one  had  a  vision  to  describe,  an 
experience  to  relate,  a  secret  to  tell.  "  All 
the  Lord's  servants  were  prophets."  Some- 
thing had  been  kindled  within  them  that  the 
terrors  of  Jerusalem  could  not  chill.  What 
was  the  new  consciousness,  the  new  convic- 
tion, that  exalted  them  and  made  men  and 
women  of  crudest  speech  eloquent?  What 
was  it  that  woke  the  slumbering  poet  in  these 
simple  natures,  and  charged  their  homely 
utterance  with  a  power  that  the  rhetoricians 
might   well   have   envied  ?     No  doubt  it  is 


92  THE   ROMANCE  OF   PREACHING 

difficult,  it  may  even  seem  presumptuous,  to 
analyze  their  emotions.  But  we  have  the 
records  to  help  us.  We  can  trace  the  lead- 
ing ideas  that  found  expression  in  the  first 
Christian  sermons  and  the  earliest  Christian 
literature.  We  know  what  Peter  taught, 
what  Stephen  testified,  what  Paul  elaborated. 
We  can  read  the  challenge  flung  down  to 
ancient  creeds  and  civilizations.  May  I  sub- 
mit to  you  that  the  great  new  doctrines  that 
received  their  inspiration  and  confirmation 
from  Christ,  and  that  became  the  very  sub- 
stance of  the  new  Evangel,  and  the  secret  of 
its  spiritual  and  social  power,  were  two — 
Immoi'tality  and  Equality  ?  There,  if  you 
come  to  think  of  it,  are  the  two  supreme  gifts 
of  our  religion — Life  and  Love. 

(i)  That  Christ's  gift  of  life  was  more 
than  the  assurance  of  immortality  we  are  all 
agreed.  To  do  the  Christians  of  that  first 
century  justice  it  was  Christ  they  valued ; 
and  they  would  rather  have  been  mortal  with 
Christ  than  immortal  without  Him.  But  the 
fact  remains  that  the  theme  of  the  first  Chris- 
tian preachers  was  the  Resurrection  and  all  its 


THE   APOSTOLIC  AGE  93 

consequences.  Life  suddenly  revealed  itself 
to  them  in  a  glory  that  took  their  breath 
away  and  smote  them  to  their  knees  in  awe 
and  rapture.  For  they  knew  themselves  now 
as  "immortals,"  and  the  splendour  of  the 
destiny  humbled  and  exalted  them.  You  re- 
member the  famous  king  who  appointed  a 
man  to  say  ever  to  him,  "  Philip,  thou  art 
mortal "  lest  an  unworthy  pride  should  be  his 
undoing.  But  henceforth  the  pilgrim  church 
was  to  whisper  in  the  ear  of  Humanity, 
"  Man,  thou  art  immortal  ;  live  as  one  of  the 
immortals,  and  may  a  noble  pride  in  thy 
origin  and  thy  destiny  save  thee  from  base- 
ness and  dishonour." 

It  has  become  a  favourite  criticism  of  the 
Christian  fathers  that,  overwhelmed  by  the 
vision  of  eternal  life  in  Christ,  they  became 
other-worldly  and  counted  life  here  of  little 
moment  if  only  they  could  make  sure  of  bliss 
hereafter.  For  my  part  I  could  wish  that 
every  modern  Christian  had  passed  even  an 
hour  under  the  stress  of  the  emotion  which 
a  realization  of  immortality  ought  to  bring 
to  each  human  soul.     You  have  to  conceive, 


94  THE   ROMANCE  OF   PREACHING 

not  a  solitary  prophet  like  Paul,  but  a  very 
host  of  triumphant  evangelists  chanting  the 
ecstatic  challenge,  "  O  Death,  where  is  thy 
sting?  O  Grave,  where  is  thy  victory?" 
What  Egyptian  and  Jew  had  timidly  and 
darkly  received,  and  to  which  Greek  Philos- 
ophy had  occasionally  uttered  a  pale  and 
bloodless  "perhaps,"  became  to  these  wit- 
nesses the  certainty  of  certainties,  the  truth 
of  truths.  History  has  to  recognize  that 
whatever  did,  or  did  not,  happen  on  that  first 
Easter  morning,  at  that  "  lone  Syrian  grave," 
the  effect  was  to  shatter  the  incredulity  and 
uncertainty  of  centuries,  and  out  of  dark 
abysses  of  speculation  drag  life  and  immor- 
tality to  light,  and  set  man  henceforth  to  ful- 
fill his  earthly  destiny  conscious  of  an  uncon- 
querable and  indestructible  soul.  Whether 
it  is  conceivable  that  that  result  was  produced 
by  an  illusion,  and  was  the  fruit  of  falsehood, 
every  one  of  us  must  judge  for  himself. 
When  I  see  similar  far-reaching  effects  of 
greatness  spring  from  fallacy  I  shall  myself 
believe  the  illusion  theory,  and  not  till  then. 
The  picture  that  we  owe  to  St.  Luke  of  the 


THE  APOSTOLIC  AGE  95 

early  Church  is  of  men  and  women  living  in 
the  rapture  of  a  great  beatitude.  They  are 
illuminated  with  "the  glory  of  the  lighted 
mind."  If  you  come  to  think  of  it,  the  Resur- 
rection of  Christ  meant  everything  to  them. 
It  was  the  vindication  of  that  Fatherhood  of 
God  which  must  have  suffered  eclipse  in  the 
seeming  tragedy  of  Calvary  ;  it  was  equally 
the  Divine  vindication  of  Jesus,  and  the  seal 
set  upon  His  teaching  and  His  life  ;  it  was 
moreover  the  vindication  of  the  greatness  of 
the  human  soul  and  its  amazing  destiny. 
When  you  add  to  these  the  conscious  leader- 
ship of  the  living  Christ,  and  the  creative 
power  of  the  sublime  faith  Ubi  Christus  ibi 
Ecclesia,  you  begin  to  understand  the  light 
that  transfigured  the  Christian  people  of 
Jerusalem,  and  transformed  one  obscure  up- 
per room  into  the  very  Gate  of  Heaven.  If 
we  were  not  so  slow  and  hard  of  heart  to-day 
we  should  still  feel  the  uplift  of  this  magnifi- 
cent revelation  ;  we  should  still  look  upwards 
with  the  transports  of  the  first  Christians,  and 
outwards  with  their  reverence  for  humanity 
and  faith  in  its  future. 


96  THE   ROMANCE   OF  PREACHING 

I  confess  to  you  I  sometimes  wonder 
whether  our  hearts  are  big  enough  and  brave 
enough  to  attempt  the  Christian  enterprise ; 
whether  something  of  the  world's  morbid 
and  sceptic  spirit  has  not  darlcened  our  sanc- 
tuary and  paralyzed  our  very  souls.  Is  it 
not  true  that  our  ark  lies  prostrate  in  the 
temple  of  Dagon  instead  of  humbling  to  the 
dust  the  pagan  and  heathen  conceptions 
against  which  we  are  professedly  at  war? 
We  have  the  most  exquisite  instrument 
wherewith  to  discourse  the  most  melting  and 
ravishing  of  music ;  but  we  play  our  Stradi- 
varius  with  a  mute.  We  are  afraid  of  its  full 
tones.  We  fall  back  on  the  language  of 
Tennyson  and  count  it  a  great  thing  if  we 
can  say 

"  We  stretch  lame  hands  of  faith," 
or 

"Wq faintly  trust  the  larger  hope." 

Lame  hands  and  faint  trust !  With  these  we 
think  to  win  the  victories  that  are  only  possi- 
ble to  the  heroes  of  religion.  Litde  wonder 
that  as  the  perplexed  people  listen  on  the  one 
hand  to  the  arrogant  dogmatism  of  material- 


THE  APOSTOLIC  AGE  97 

istic  science  and  on  the  other  to  the  halting  and 
hesitating  and  semi-apologetic  discourse  of 
the  modern  prophet  of  religion,  we  make  but 
a  poor  appearance  in  the  competition. 

I  do  not  want  you  to  misunderstand  me. 
It  may  be  that  the  preacher  of  open  and  sin- 
cere mind  has  been  wrestling  by  the  ford 
Jabbok  with  the  Angel  of  Truth  and  has 
halted  on  his  thigh.  He  is  conscious  that 
somehow  he  walks  lame  in  the  paths  his 
fathers  trod  with  sure  steps  and  upright  car- 
riage. It  may  be  that  if  we  knew  all,  we 
should  take  it  for  distinction ;  but  the 
preacher  himself  is  only  conscious  that  the 
world  has  observed  that  he  is  lame,  and  is 
asking  if  not  where  is  thy  God,  at  least  where 
is  thy  theology  ?  And,  believe  me,  we  can 
do  nothing  without  the  sublime  simplicities 
of  Christianity.  If  a  man  does  not  know  of 
a  surety  that  personal  God  whom  even  the 
Prodigal  at  his  husks  can  still  speak  of  as 
''  Aly  Father,"  if  he  cannot  kneel  by  the  sin- 
stricken  and  announce  to  him  with  unclouded 
faith  the  certainty  of  forgiveness  in  Christ,  if 
he  cannot  stand  by  the  bedside  of  the  dying 


98  THE   ROMANCE  OF   PREACHING 

and  encourage  him  in  the  sure  and  certain 
hope  of  the  resurrection  to  eternal  Hfe,  he 
may  still  do  for  the  study,  or  the  store,  or  the 
country  house,  but  the  Christian  pulpit  should 
know  him  no  more. 

I  make  even  that  last  admission  with  some 
hesitation.  For  if  we  are  in  earnest  in  this 
matter  we  are  bound  to  believe  that  this  great 
creed  is  so  determinative  of  character  and 
life  that  no  man — whatsoever  his  calling  in 
life — can  do  his  best  work  without  it,  and 
that  apart  from  it  every  man's  attitude  to  his 
fellows  must  be  defective.  Let  me  call  to 
my  aid  a  very  brilliant  leader  of  the  medical 
profession  in  my  own  country.  Addressing 
a  meeting  of  medical  students  in  the  city  of 
Sheffield,  Sir  James  Crichton  Browne  advised 
them  to  beware  of  the  materialistic  school 
which  regards  a  man's  brain  as  no  more  than 
so  much  phosphorus  and  so  much  glue ; 
and  suggested  that  if  a  man  is  good  and 
wise  it  is  because  his  brain  has  a  maximum 
of  phosphorus  and  a  minimum  of  glue, 
while  if  he  is  evil  and  foolish  it  is  because  his 
brain  has  a  maximum  of  glue  and  a  mini- 


THE  APOSTOLIC  AGE  99 

mum  of  phosphorus.  Sir  James  went  on 
to  say  that  if  the  students  adopted  this  ma- 
terialistic conception  of  man's  nature  they 
would  be  disqualified  from  treating  any  one 
successfully  as  a  patient  even  on  the  physical 
side.  To  be  a  true  physician  a  doctor  must 
understand  the  spiritual  nature  of  his  patients. 
The  merely  materialistic  theory  spells  failure 
here  and  everywhere. 

The  best  type  of  labour  leader  in  my  own 
land  knows  perfectly  well  how  much  is  at 
stake  in  this  great  issue  as  to  whether  man 
is  merely  an  animal  of  a  higher  order,  and 
no  more  ;  or  whether  he  is,  as  Christ  taught, 
an  immortal  being.  If  our  workmen  listen 
to  the  materialism  that  is  preached  to  them 
from  a  thousand  platforms  and  in  a  thousand 
journals,  they  lose  the  most  powerful  of  all 
motives  for  social  betterment.  If  they  think 
and  talk  of  one  another  as  no  more  than 
animals  they  only  have  themselves  to  thank 
if  employers  treat  them  as  if  they  were  no 
more  than  animals.  We,  on  the  other  hand, 
who  believe  with  Christ  in  the  nobility  and 
dignity  of  human  nature,  must  press  upon 


lOO       THE   ROMANCE  OF  PREACHING 

the  conscience  of  the  community  such  ques- 
tions as  these.  If  the  children  of  poverty 
and  vice  in  the  slums  and  alleys  of  our 
crowded  cities,  in  cellars  and  garrets  of 
tenement  houses  and  elsewhere,  are  indeed 
immortal  spirits  destined  to  eternal  existence, 
what  is  our  duty  to  them  ?  How  can  we  sit 
with  folded  hands  while  men  and  women  are 
wallowing  in  filth  and  slime  who  are  sons 
and  daughters  of  the  Eternal  ?  What  new 
ideals  of  society  are  forced  upon  us  when  we 
dare  to  look  at  human  life  in  the  light  of  the 
Resurrection?  In  other  words — what  must 
our  practice  be,  if  we  are  still  resolved  to 
preach  this  magnificent  Gospel  ? 

(2)  To  the  effect  which  the  Evangelists 
of  the  Resurrection  produced  by  their  Gospel 
justice  has  been  done  by  many  historians. 
The  violent  antipathy  of  the  Sadducaic 
school,  which  is  always  with  us,  manifested 
itself  in  an  astonishing  desire  to  exterminate 
all  teachers  who  affirmed  man's  immortality. 
The  heroic  constancy  of  the  Christian  con- 
fessors in  treating  Death  as  no  more  than  an 


THE  APOSTOLIC  AGE  lOI 

incident  in  Life,  while  it  impressed  the  be- 
holders, made  the  last  dread  weapon  of  the 
persecuter  of  none  effect ;  and  so  paralyzed 
his  arm.  Of  all  this  much  has  been  written 
again  and  again.  But  I  think  less  justice 
has  been  done  to  the  effect  of  that  new  doc- 
trine of  Equality  which  found  expression  in 
the  organized  life  of  the  first  Christian  com- 
munities, and  was  a  definite  challenge  to 
every  other  social  structure  of  the  then 
world.  The  principle  running  through  these 
primitive  Christian  societies  was  so  simple 
that  it  is  difficult  to  realize  how  profoundly 
revolutionary  it  was,  and  how  subversive  of 
the  existing  order  of  things.  But  any  one 
can  see  that  a  church  that  offered  equal 
privileges  to,  and  conferred  equal  rights 
upon,  the  slave  and  the  freeman;  and  ac- 
knowledged no  authority  of  rank  or  station 
within  its  borders,  but  reverenced  faith  and 
character  alone,  threw  down  the  gauntlet  of 
defiance  to  the  most  deep-seated  prejudices 
of  our  human  nature. 

Many  a  proud  heart  must  have  been  the 
theatre  of  a  life-and-death  struggle  between 


I02        THE   ROMANCE  OF  PREACHING 

hereditary  scorn  of  the  "  canaille "  and  a 
consciousness  of  the  truth  of  the  new  Re- 
ligion— such  a  struggle  as  Bulwer  Lytton 
portrayed  in  the  patrician  breast  of  Glaucus 
in  '*  The  Last  Days  of  Pompeii."  One  real- 
izes that  it  was  far  less  a  matter  of  embracing 
the  Christian  doctrine  than  of  accepting  the 
Christian  society  that  antagonized  the  aristo- 
crats of  Greece  and  Rome.  When  the  waves 
of  an  invading  and  resistless  Christianity 
flowed  inward  to  the  Imperial  Throne  itself, 
the  terror  it  inspired  was  due,  not  so  much  to 
any  of  its  distinctive  dogmas,  as  to  this  amaz- 
ing fraternity,  the  unity  of  which  no  ex- 
tremity of  coercion  could  injure  or  destroy. 
You  are  to  imagine  men  and  women,  with  a 
new  and  evident  inspiration  upon  them, 
preaching  this  uncompromising  truth  that 
God  holds  all  human  souls  at  equal  value, 
and  thinks  no  more  of  a  Constantine  than 
of  the  humblest  day-labourer  whom  he  has 
treated  as  dirt  beneath  his  feet. 

No  doubt  it  was  strong  meat,  difficult  of 
digestion  at  any  time  and  in  any  place,  but 
most  of  all  in  a  civilization  founded   upon 


THE  APOSTOLIC  AGE  I03 

slavery.  But  what  are  we  to  say  when  Paul 
gives  this  social  teaching  its  widest  applica- 
tion, and  abolishes  in  one  sublime  phrase  all 
the  distinctions  that  lay  behind  the  national 
antagonisms  of  that  ancient  world  ?  **  There 
is  neither  Jew  nor  Greek,  .  .  .  Barbarian, 
Scythian,  bond  nor  free."  What  idols  with 
feet  of  clay  this  new  Hammer  in  the  hands  of 
this  new  Iconoclast  was  to  shatter  to  pieces  ! 
What  painstaking  genius  has  been  conse- 
crated in  subsequent  centuries  to  the  task  of 
patching  up  these  idols  again  !  "  Neither 
Jew  nor  Greek."  Was  all  that  cultivation  of 
the  spirit  of  exclusiveness,  which  is  commonly 
called  patriotism,  to  go  for  nothing?  Was 
the  Roman  to  have  no  pride  of  preeminence 
over  the  Barbarian  ?  Was  the  fair  child  of 
classic  Greece  to  be  regarded  as  on  an  exact 
equality  with  the  swarthy  and  uncivilized 
Scythian?  Will  these  wild  apostles  of  equal- 
ity lay  their  disrespectful  hands  on  the  altars 
of  hereditary  aristocracy,  social  and  racial, 
and  suggest  that  the  Roman  is  not  to  count 
for  more  than  the  "Angles"  who  are  bought 
and  sold  in  his  slave-market  ?     I  am  speak- 


J 


104        THE   ROMANCE  OF   PREACHING 

ing  now  of  the  great  days  when  the  faith  was 
free  and  uncorrupt,  the  days  before  its  un- 
holy compromises  with  the  world,  the  days 
before,  in  one  splendid  and  fatal  hour,  it  con- 
quered the  Roman  Empire  and  was  conquered 
by  it.  I  am  speaking  of  the  time  of  its  ro- 
mance, when  it  surrendered  nothing,  and 
never  dreamed  of  becoming  safe  and  tame 
and  respectable  and  even  fashionable ;  the  time 
when  it  feared  no  one  and  flattered  no  one  ; 
the  time  when  its  confessors  were  the  men 
and  women  whom  the  world  could  not  bully 
and  could  not  buy.  Then  it  was  demon- 
strated that  the  Christian  love,  which  is  the 
creation  of  Christ,  welded  those  who  received 
it  into  a  Brotherhood  where  external  differ- 
ences melted  away  and  became  non-existent, 
and  the  only  realities  in  the  world  were  the 
faith,  the  hope,  and  the  love  which  were  the 
enduring  property  of  every  believer. 

If  I  seem  to  labour  this  point,  it  is  because 
I  touch  here  upon  the  real  secret  of  the  power 
which  the  first  Christian  preachers  and  con- 
fessors exercised,  and  which  won  their  victory 
against  such  formidable  odds.     They  were 


THE  APOSTOLIC  AGE  105 

sincerely  indifferent  to  all  that  made  up  the 
ambitions  of  the  world  amid  which  they  \ 
lived  ;  and  this  indifference  to  the  mere  ex- 
ternals of  life  gave  the  powers  and  principal- 
ities no  weapon  with  which  to  assail  them. 
Nothing  in  all  the  marvellous  records  stands 
out  clearer  than  the  sense  of  hopelessness 
and  failure  that  gradually  overwhelmed  their 
enemies.  Nothing  could  be  done  against 
such  men  as  these  first  Christian  ancestors 
of  ours  which  they  either  feared  or  felt.  The 
dignities  and  emoluments  on  which  princes 
and  governments  rely,  not  in  vain,  for  deal- 
ing with  awkward  critics,  or  persons  of  in- 
convenient knowledge,  had  no  attraction  for 
these  idealists.  They  were  supremely  dis- 
interested. You  and  I  are  so  accustomed  to 
hearing  the  sneer  of  the  cynics  who  assume 
that  we  are  no  more  indifferent  than  the  rest 
of  mankind  to  the  luxuries  and  resources  of 
civilization  that  we  have  gradually  consented 
to  their  theory  ;  and  in  doing  so  have  unin- 
tentionally impoverished  our  office  of  its 
kingliest  power. 

No  cynic  ever  whispered  such  depreciation 


Io6        THE   ROMANCE   OF   PREACHING 

of  the  men  and  women  who  held  all  their 
possessions  cheap,  and  passed  even  from 
the  mansion  to  the  mine  with  serene  tran- 
quillity, turning  every  loss  and  deprivation 
into  a  sacrament.  Open  your  Church  His- 
tory in  its  early  chapters  and  read  at 
random  the  thrilling  letter  of  Cyprian  to 
those  ministers  and  members  who  had 
been  condemned  to  labour  in  the  mines. 
Some  of  them  had  been  delicately  nurtured. 
They  had  as  much,  one  would  suppose,  to 
line  their  brows  with  care  as  the  modern 
pastor  who  writes  pathetically  of  the  diffi- 
culty of  "  making  good  "  in  congested  city 
or  deserted  village.  But  they  certainly  never 
pitied  themselves,  nor  did  their  brethren  ofTer 
i  them  sympathy,  but   congratulation.     Here 

!  is  how  Cyprian    writes   to   them.     "  In   the 

!  mines   the   body   is   refreshed,  not   by  beds 

I  and  pillows,  but  by  the  comforts  and  joys 

j  of  Christ.     Your  limbs,  wearied  with  labour, 

1  recline  upon  the  earth,  but  it  is  no  punish- 

I  ment  to  lie  there  with  Christ.     Your  bread 

i  is  scanty,  but  man  lives  not  by  bread  alone 

\  but  by  the  word  of  God.     You  are  in  want 


THE  APOSTOLIC  AGE  107 

of  clothing  to  defend  you  from  the  cold,  but 
he  who  has  put  on  Christ  has  clothing  and 
ornament  enough.  Even  though,  my  dearest 
brethren,  you  cannot  celebrate  the  commun- 
ion of  the  Lord's  Supper,  your  faith  need  feel 
no  want.  You  do  celebrate  the  most  glorious 
communion  ;  you  do  bring  God  the  most 
costly  oblation,  since  the  Holy  Scriptures  de- 
clare that  God  will  not  despise  a  broken  and  a 
contrite  spirit.  Your  example  has  been  fol- 
lowed by  a  large  portion  of  the  Church  who 
have  confessed  with  you  and  been  crowned. 
United  to  you  by  ties  of  the  strongest  love, 
they  could  not  be  separated  from  their  pas- 
tors by  dungeons  and  mines.  Even  young 
maidens  and  boys  are  with  you.  What 
power  have  you  now  in  a  victorious  con- 
science— what  triumph  in  your  hearts,  when 
you  can  walk  through  the  mines  with  en- 
slaved bodies  but  with  souls  conscious  of 
mastery  ;  when  you  know  that  Christ  is  with 
you,  rejoicing  in  the  patience  of  His  serv- 
ants, who  in  His  footsteps  and  by  His  ways 
are  entering  into  the  Kingdom  of  eternity." 
That  is  how  Cyprian  offers  these  disciples 


I08        THE   ROMANCE   OF   PREACHING 

and  witnesses  who  had  lost  everything  the 
world  values,  not  his  compassion  but  his 
congratulation.  I  am  pressing  upon  you 
that  the  preachers  of  the  first  Christian  cen- 
turies felt  themselves  the  representatives  of  a 
new  society,  or  as  Dr.  Harnack  says,  a  new 
people,  with  unique  standards.  It  is  of  im- 
mense importance  that  you  should  realize 
that  Jews,  Romans,  Greeks,  Barbarians,  were 
offered  citizenship  in  this  new  nation  on 
equal  terms  ;  and  that  no  differences  of  rank, 
education  or  wealth  were  allowed  any  con- 
sideration whatsoever.  Not  immediately 
perhaps,  but  gradually,  they  came  to  the 
consciousness  that  they  were  a  new  world- 
state,  destined  eventually  to  conquer  and 
subdue  all  political  nations,  and  supply  the 
basis  of  a  universal  civilization.  You  will 
never  understand  the  thoughts  and  passions 
that  burned  and  blazed  in  these  men's  souls 
if  you  do  not  realize  something  of  what  this 
conception  meant  to  them,  and  how  attract- 
ive it  was  to  those  who  listened.  Dr.  Hatch 
of  Oxford  in  writing  upon  the  early  Chris- 
tian centuries  defined  the  eternal  mission  of 


THE  APOSTOLIC  AGE  109 

the  Church  as  this — "to  substitute  for  the 
sociahsm  that  is  based  upon  the  assumption 
of  clashing  interests,  the  sociahsm  that  is 
based  on  the  sense  of  spiritual  union." 

The  preachers  of  the  apostolic  age  and  the 
great  centuries  that  followed  were  the  heralds 
of  that  higher  socialism.  What  their  Gospel 
meant  you  can  all  estimate  when  you  reflect 
that  the  members  of  the  Roman  nobility  or 
the  proudest  family  among  the  Jewish  Phari- 
sees had  to  confess  the  slave  who  had  be- 
come a  Christian  as  a  social  equal.  But 
when  you  realize  that,  you  will  realize  also 
why  the  ideals  of  the  Christian  society  swept 
over  the  Roman  Empire  like  a  conflagration. 
For  it  is  not  the  case  in  this  much-maHgned 
world,  that  a  great  human  response  awaits 
the  carefully-calculated  and  shrewdly-bal- 
anced compromises,  that  aim  at  softening  the 
susceptibilities  of  the  rich  without  violently 
antagonizing  the  poor.  The  truths  that 
conquer  the  world  are  not  compromises  at  all, 
but  certain  splendid  simplicities,  not  only 
courageously  and  unambiguously  stated  but, 
equally    without  qualification,  accepted   and 


no        THE   ROMANCE   OF  PREACHING 

applied.  Within  the  borders  of  this  new 
people  the  social  contrast  was  unchallenged  ; 
and  the  preacher  could  without  the  shadow 
of  hypocrisy  or  insincerity  proclaim  its  reality 
to  all  the  world.  Do  you  ever  wonder  why 
it  is  that  to-day,  in  our  championship  of  our 
faith  and  order,  our  witness  sometimes  falters  ; 
that  we  fall  back  upon  apologies  where  we 
need  to  use  unconditional  affirmations  ?  Can 
any  preacher  of  to-day  say  from  his  pulpit, 
with  the  same  fervour  and  sincerity  as  the 
first  Christian  preachers,  that  the  Christian 
Church  is  a  unique  society  of  people  where 
social  distinctions  do  not  exist,  and  where 
men  and  women  of  every  race  and  condition 
may  meet  on  the  basis  of  absolute  equality  ? 
Yet  for  that  we  were  created.  Not  to  ac- 
cept the  old  standards  and  have  imposed  upon 
us  the  old  distinctions  of  an  ancient  pagan 
civilization,  but  to  present  a  society  which  is 
a  new  creation  in  Christ  Jesus,  and  which 
will  kindle  the  enthusiasm  and  revive  the 
hope  of  those  who  have  found  neither  hope 
nor  help  in  any  other  society  in  the  world. 
Much  of  this  that    I  am  saying  may  apply 


THE  APOSTOLIC  AGE  III 

less  to  you  than  to  my  own  land.  These  old 
caste  feelings  are  only  slowly  dissolving  be- 
fore the  nobler  democratic  influences  that  are 
now  coming  into  play  ;  and  many  genera- 
tions, and  even  centuries  will  pass  before  the 
Christian  ideal  will  be  realized.  Any  preacher 
who  talked  of  the  Church  as  the  home  where 
social  distinctions  were  unknown  would  not 
only  be  laughed  to  scorn,  he  would  laugh 
his  own  statement  to  scorn.  And  the  fact  of 
the  matter  is  we  do  not  realize  how  large  a 
section  of  Christian  apologetic  we  have  sac- 
rificed ;  nor  how  invaluable  and  irreplaceable 
is  the  strategical  position  we  have  evacuated. 

It  is  perhaps  enough  that  I  should  say  as 
I  close  that  this  that  has  been  called  Chris- 
tian Socialism  springs,  as  every  worthy  so- 
cialism does,  out  of  a  high  individualism — a 
sense  of  the  incalculable  and  imperishable 
worth  of  the  human  soul.  This  may  seem 
to  some  of  you  the  most  old-fashioned  truth 
to  have  thrust  upon  you  in  these  modern 
days,  but  I  am  certain  that  no  preacher  is  go- 
ing to  count  for  much  who  has  not  seen  every 


112        THE   ROMANCE   OF   PREACHING 

soul  in  the  world  in  the  light  of  the  Christ 
who  died  for  it.  It  seems  sometimes  as 
if  modern  civilization  holds  some  souls  very- 
cheap.  That  may  be.  But  it  is  the  business 
of  the  Christian  preacher  to  stand  by  his 
Gospel.  What  is  that  Gospel  ?  It  is  con- 
tained in  a  verse  of  one  of  the  greatest  Chris- 
tian hymns : 

<*  Were  the  whole  realm  of  Nature  mine, 
That  were  a  present  far  too  small  I 
Love  so  amazing,  so  Divine, 
Demands  my  Soul " 

That  is  to  say  that  my  soul  is  a  greater 
and  bigger  thing  than  "  the  whole  realm  of 
nature."  Do  you  believe  it?  I  agree  it  is 
the  most  romantic  of  all  beliefs.  It  affirms 
that  the  soul  of  every  forced  labourer  on  the 
Amazon  is  of  more  value  than  all  the  mines 
of  Johannesburg,  all  the  diamonds  of  Kim- 
berly,  all  the  millions  of  all  the  magnates  of 
America.  It  affirms  that  in  God's  sight  all 
the  suns  and  stars  that  people  infinite  space, 
are  of  inferior  worth  to  one  human  spirit 
dwelling,  it  may  be,  in  the  degraded  body  of 
some  victim  of  drink  or  lust,  some  member 


THE  APOSTOLIC  AGE  II3 

of  the  gutter  population  of  a  great  city  who 
has  descended  to  his  doom  by  means  of  the 
multipHed  temptations  with  which  our  so- 
called  society  environs  him.  It  is  a  romantic 
creed.  But  if  it  is  not  true  Christianity  itself 
is  false  ;  and  certain  it  is  that  there  has  never 
been  any  triumphant  Christian  movement  in 
the  history  of  the  Church  save  as  that  high 
doctrine  of  the  human  soul  has  been  preached. 
For  Christianity  lives  by  the  majesty  of  its 
beliefs.  It  lives  by  its  uncompromising  truths. 
It  lives  by  demanding  of  its  disciples,  not  the 
minimum,  but  the  maximum  of  faith  and 
service. 

To-day  we  are  witnessing  many  audacious 
and  inspiring  endeavours  to  construct  in  this 
world  new  and  more  Christian  civilizations. 
This  principle  that  we  hear  so  often  on  both 
sides  of  the  Atlantic,  that  every  man,  woman 
and  child  shall  have  a  fair  chance — what 
does  it  mean  ?  Who  will  be  the  prophets 
of  that  ideal  if  not  ourselves  ?  What  argu- 
ment can  sustain  so  high  and  sacred  a  con- 
ception of  duty  except  the  argument  as  to 
the  supreme  worth  of  each  individual  soul  ? 


114        THE   ROMANCE   OF   PREACHING 

It  is  from  that  that  the  real  rights  of  man 
must  spring.  And  for  the  overthrow  of 
every  system  of  government,  or  organiza- 
tion of  society  that  is  injurious  to,  or  op- 
pressive of,  the  individual  life,  this  is  the 
revolutionary  doctrine  that  can  be  relied  on. 
I  charge  you,  as  the  inheritors  of  the  peerless 
traditions  and  golden  ideals  of  the  primitive 
Christian  society,  as  the  modern  prophets  of 
the  "  new  People,"  as  the  interpreters  to  this 
marvellous  century  of  the  eternal  principles 
for  which  the  Christian  churches  stand,  that 
you  steep  yourselves  in  the  thoughts  and  be- 
liefs of  the  apostolic  age,  face  bravely  and 
unflinchingly  their  doctrines,  and  the  social 
consequences  of  their  doctrines,  and  that  at 
all  costs  you  hold  back  nothing  of  the  truth 
for  any  fear  or  favour  of  man.  For  only 
thus  shall  we  see  in  our  time  a  growing 
reverence  and  enthusiasm  for  the  Church  of 
Christ,  and  the  fulfillment  of  that  hope  which 
Dr.  Hatch  confessed  in  the  most  eloquent  of 
his  Bampton  lectures,  "a  Church  that  shall 
outshine  even  the  golden  glory  of  its  dawn 
by  the  splendour  of  its  eternal  noon." 


LECTURE  IV 

THE  ROYALTY   OF   THE  PULPIT: 
ATHANASIUS  AND  CHRYSOSTOM 


LECTURE   IV 

THE  ROYALTY  OF  THE   PULPIT : 
ATHANASIUS  AND  CHRYSOSTOM 

THE  Christian  Church  has  been  the 
nursing-home  of  great  orators.  This 
is  not  wonderful.  For  oratory  to 
become  great,  it  needs  the  inspiration  of  a 
great  cause,  of  great  ideals.  This  the  Chris- 
tian Church  supplied,  with  its  doctrines  of 
the  All-Father,  of  man  triumphant  by  faith 
over  sin  and  death,  and  of  humanity  destined 
to  become  one  universal  family  in  Christ. 
It  made  an  overpowering  appeal  to  the 
imagination  in  the  mystery  of  the  Word 
made  flesh,  in  Paul's  doctrine  of  solidarity, 
and  in  the  revelation  of  eternal  life.  We 
know  that  as  a  matter  of  fact,  so  mighty 
was  the  new  inspiration  beneath  which  the 
souls  of  men  were  revived,  that  Art,  Litera- 
ture,  Architecture,  Music  were  born  again. 

When  we  speak  of  Christian  Art  or  Christian 
117 


Il8        THE   ROMANCE   OF   PREACHING 

Literature  we  do  so  because  we  are  sensible 
of  a  new  quality  in  tliem  distinguishing  them 
from  art  or  literature  under  pagan  forms. 

The  same  is  true  of  architecture  and  music. 
The  Christian  cathedral  is  different  in  kind 
from  the  noblest  form  of  classical  temple. 
We  are  conscious  that  the  soul  of  the  archi- 
tect is  seeking  to  express  higher  ideals  of 
reverence  and  mystical  experience.  The 
student  of  poetry  proposes  to  himself  as  a 
problem  what  it  is  in  Dante  that  touches  us 
so  much  more  nearly  and  powerfully  than 
Vergil,  why  all  the  poetry  of  the  ancients 
is  pale  before  the  disciplined  emotion  and 
passion  of  Milton.  Music  can  hardly  be 
said  to  have  found  itself,  and  given  per- 
manent expression  to  human  aspiration 
until  it  became  the  handmaid  of  Christianity, 
and  gave  utterance  to  the  depths  of  human 
grief  and  heights  of  human  rapture  in  the 
Oratorio  and  the  Mass.  To-day  I  ask  you 
to  believe,  that  this  new  inspiration  of  which 
Christ  Jesus  was  the  author,  created  also  a 
new  order  of  speakers,  a  new  type  of  oratory. 
If  I  speak  of  Christian  eloquence,  it  is  be- 


THE   ROYALTY   OF  THE   PULPIT        II9 

cause  I  believe  that  the  highest  type  of 
eloquence  the  world  has  ever  known  is  in- 
separable from  the  most  exalted  inspiration 
and  can  only  flow  from  that  source. 

This  is  not  said  to  depreciate  the  glorious 
philippics  of  Demosthenes,  or  the  orations 
of  Cicero,  the  two  outstanding  orators  of 
the  classic  ages.  But  splendid  as  Cicero's 
speeches  are,  and  worthy  of  your  study  as 
masterpieces  of  forensic  eloquence  with  their 
invective,  their  argument,  their  satire,  their 
wit,  their  occasional  high  ethical  appeal, 
they  do  not  stir  the  deepest  emotions  of  our 
souls,  or  inspire  in  us  the  loftiest  vision.  The 
orations  of  Demosthenes  are  the  utterances 
not  only  of  a  supreme  rhetorician,  but  of  a 
true  prophet  and  a  great  patriot.  In  his 
passionate  devotion  to  the  liberties  of  his 
people  he  is  one  of  the  immortals.  The 
glow  of  his  heroic  spirit  is  in  his  words  still, 
and  will  keep  them  alive  forever.  But  all 
local  patriotism  however  deep  and  fervent 
must  be  inferior  in  real  greatness  to  that 
patriotism  to  the  kingdom  of  God  which 
is   the   creation,  I  say  it  reverently,  of  the 


I20       THE   ROMANCE   OF   PREACHING 

genius  of  our  Lord,  and  possessed  by 
which  men  transcend  their  local  racial  dis- 
tinctions, and  realize  their  brotherhood  with 
all  humanity.  When  a  soul  speaks  to  us 
great  enough  to  be  illuminated  by  that  ideal, 
and  noble  enough  to  be  fired  by  that  en- 
thusiasm, he  becomes  the  standing  demon- 
stration of  the  superiority  of  the  power  of 
Christianity,  the  universal  religion,  over 
every  localized  or  nationalized  form  of 
religion  whatsoever. 

I  ask  your  attention  at  this  lecture  to  two 
great  masters  of  rhetoric,  admirable  illustra- 
tions of  the  romance  of  preaching,  whose 
astonishing  careers  provide  innumerable 
lessons  for  the  modern  preacher.  The  two  I 
refer  to  are  Athanasius  and  Chrysostom.  I 
associate  them  not  so  much  because  they 
were  almost  contemporaries  in  that  critical 
fourth  century,  but  because  they  were  so 
dissimilar  in  the  externals  of  their  ministry 
while  exemplifying  so  vividly  the  same  su- 
preme power  of  inspired  personality.  We 
shall  see  that  so  far  as  outward  advantages 


THE   ROYALTY   OF  THE   PULPIT        121 

are  concerned,  Chrysostom  had  everything 
that  Athanasius  lacked.  Nature  had  fash- 
ioned him  to  be  an  orator.  He  was  tall  and 
commanding  in  figure,  handsome  in  features, 
with  a  magnificent  organ-voice,  and  a  flow 
of  words  which  no  other  orator  could  rival. 
So  far  as  education  was  concerned  he  had 
passed  through  the  discipline  of  a  legal 
training,  and  had  won  distinction  at  the  bar 
before  he  was  carried  by  irresistible  sym- 
pathies into  the  service  of  the  Church.  We 
see  the  result  of  his  legal  practice  in  that 
lucid  and  cogent  forensic  style  which  made 
his  expositions  of  Scripture  so  fascinating, 
and  left  the  hearers  without  an  answer. 

But  there  is  a  vast  difference  between 
Chrysostom  the  legal  pleader  and  Chrysos- 
tom the  Christian  pleader.  Chrysostom's 
homilies  are  an  exalted  form  of  argumenta- 
tive discourse  ;  and  it  is  the  sacred  passion 
that  throbs  through  his  periods  that,  even 
more  than  his  rhetorical  felicities,  captures 
our  interest  still.  Over  against  the  royal 
figure  of  the  golden-mouthed  prince  of 
preachers  stands  the  one  whose  name  and 


122        THE   ROMANCE   OF   PREACHING 

fame  overtopped  that  of  emperors  and  mili- 
tary conquerors,  but  whose  unparallelled  as- 
cendancy over  his  fellows  was  due  v/holly  to 
spiritual,  and  in  no  degree  to  physical,  prop- 
erties. Ernest  Renan  described  St.  Paul,  in 
one  of  those  fierce  phrases  that  live,  as  an 
"  ugly  little  Jew."  Athanasius  was  appar- 
ently a  dwarf,  shortening  by  a  stoop  even  the 
squat  figure.  His  nose  was  hooked,  and  he 
wore  a  stubby,  bristling  beard.  His  hair  was 
apparently  straw-coloured.  It  is  surely  not 
in  such  a  guise  that  Mr.  Bernard  Shaw  would 
have  us  recognize  the  super-man  ;  and  I  sus- 
pect that  many  college  committees  might 
have  hesitated  long  before  accepting  for  the 
ministry  one  who  would  have  required  some 
mechanical  means  to  add  a  cubit  to  his  stature, 
before  he  could  even  have  been  seen  over  the 
side  of  any  ordinary  pulpit. 

Yet  super-man  he  was.  I  like  to  read  how 
that  strange  countenance  was  illuminated  to 
seraphic  beauty  by  light  of  inward  holiness 
and  zeal  for  truth.  Such  was  the  mighty 
soul  in  the  attenuated  body  of  him  who  dared 
emperors  and  defied  ecclesiastics,  who  was 


THE   ROYALTY  OF  THE   PULPIT        1 23 

exiled  again  and  again  and  again  and  yet 
again,  who  was  as  much  at  home  in  the  caves 
of  the  Egyptian  deserts  as  in  the  council- 
chamber  of  Nicaea  or  the  palace  of  Alexan- 
dria. No  man  was  less  depressed  by  defeat, 
or  exalted  by  success.  Yet  the  gorgeous  an- 
nals of  Constantine  afford  no  parallel  to  the 
splendour  of  popular  triumph,  when  Alexan- 
dria swept  out  beyond  its  walls  to  welcome 
back  its  banished  preacher  and  bishop,  the 
multitude  of  its  people  suggesting  to  an  eye- 
witness the  Nile  overflowing  its  banks. 
Then  came  stepping  along  the  sandy  road 
out  of  the  wilderness  of  his  exile,  the  strange 
dwarf  figure,  with  the  beard  whitened  with 
toil  and  care,  but  the  face  still  radiant,  and 
the  light  in  the  eyes  that  told  of  the  uncon- 
querable soul.  No  modern  preacher,  with 
any  pride  in  his  sublime  calling,  can  ever 
omit  to  do  reverence  at  that  niche  in  the  great 
temple  of  prophets  where  the  statue  stands  of 

"  Royal-hearted  Athanase 
By  Paul's  own  mantle  blest." 

If  only  we  could  extract  from  the  pages  of 
history  or  extort  by  some  scientific  process 


124        THE   ROMANCE   OF   PREACHING 

the  secret  of  that  magical  fact  we  call  person- 
ality! But  in  default  of  that,  we  may  surely 
be  pardoned  for  doubting  whether  any  man 
is  going  to  make  more  of  the  ministry  than  a 
very  commonplace  and  even  humdrum  affair 
who  has  never  been  set  on  fire.  It  may  be 
doubted  whether  all  the  modern  athletic  ex- 
perts can  add  a  cubit  to  our  stature,  and  in 
any  case,  the  conquest  of  the  world  does  not 
depend  upon  it.  Less  and  less  will  mere 
physical  qualities,  or  mere  brute  force,  stand 
for  empire  in  the  affairs  of  men  ;  and  this  I 
venture  to  say  who  am  nevertheless  keenly 
alive  to  all  the  joys  of  bodily  existence,  and 
.  advantages  of  a  trained  physique.  But  the 
K  one  supreme  qualification  for  the  ministry  is 
\|  a  soul  of  flame.  Helen  Keller  may  be  blind 
and  deaf  and  dumb,  but  she  has  preached 
faith  and  courage  and  love  all  round  the 
world ;  while  millions  of  men  and  women  of 
no  physical  defect  whatsoever  have  never  had 
any  message  to  which  it  was  worth  while  for 
any  one  to  listen.  The  power  to  kindle 
the   spirits  of  our  fellows   is  the  endowment 

for  which  we  pray  and    plead.      I  am   well 

\ 


THE   ROYALTY  OF  THE  PULPIT       1 25 

aware  that  no  class-room  can  give  it. 
Even  amid  the  intellectual  interests  of  uni- 
versity life,  and  the  vivid  enthusiasms  of 
youth,  it  may  be  lost  and  not  found.  The 
minister  who  has  it,  carries  with  him  every- 
where the  argument  from  which  there  is 
no  appeal.  The  minister  who  has  it  not  may 
labour  pathetically  with  the  tools  of  logic  and 
rhetoric  but  at  the  end  he  will  be  desolate  of 
spirit  because  of  the  little  that  his  hands  have 
built. 

It  is  an  old  story  this,  yet  we  cannot  get 
away  from  it,  that  the  world  bows  before  soul. 
What  it  wants  to  know  about  our  religion  is 
not  so  much  that  it  is  reasonable  as  that  it  is 
real.  One  of  Athanasius'  enemies  wrote 
about  him  that  he  was  "  a  dwarf  and  no 
man  "  ;  but  once  Athanasius  rose  to  defend 
the  faith  that  was  dearer  than  his  life  and  he 
was  a  man  of  giant  stature  and  no  dwarf. 
Vast  audiences  that  were  tempted  to  laugh  at 
his  puny  figure  and  mean  appearance,  drew 
faith  and  hope  and  love  and  zeal  from  the 
Christ-illuminated  soul  of  this  apostolic 
preacher. 


126        THE   ROMANCE   OF   PREACHING 

I  would  commend  the  study  of  Athanasius 
to  any  one  who  has  not  formed  the  true  idea 
in  his  mind  of  the  royalty  of  the  pulpit,  and 
that  it  is  to  be  maintained  in  this  world  as  the 
one  place  where  the  truth  of  God  is  to  be 
proclaimed  without  fear  or  favour.  Woe  to 
that  preacher  who  does  not  keep  within  his 
breast  an  incorruptible  conscience,  whose 
vision  of  God  is  clouded  by  unworthy  fear  of 
his  audience,  and  whose  self-respect  is  under- 
mined by  unmanly  compromises  and  sur- 
renders to  placate  wealthy  or  influential 
patrons  !  Everybody  knows  the  temptation 
to  substitute  for  the  high  and  difficult  voca- 
tion of  a  prophet  of  Truth,  the  amiable  am- 
bition to  please  a  congregation.  Many  well- 
meaning  ministers  have  spent  weary  years 
cajoling  and  flattering  their  people,  softening 
down  the  rebukes  of  the  Gospel,  and  lining 
Christ's  hard  sayings  with  velvet  till  the  most 
touchy  consciences  in  the  pews  of  Christen- 
dom can  come  in  contact  with  them  without 
a  shock.  It  might  seem  as  if  some  preachers 
had  laid  down  as  a  law  for  themselves  to 
make  nobody  uncomfortable  whose  income 


THE   ROYALTY   OF  THE   PULPIT        1 27 

was  more  than  ^200  ($1000)  a  year.  Quite 
recently  I  heard  a  sermon  on  luxury  in  a  fash- 
ionable West-End  church  in  London  ;  and  as 
the  preacher  took  pains  to  explain  that  Christ's 
life  was  so  different  from  ours  that  we  could 
not  imitate  its  externals,  I  was  conscious  of 
that  pleasant  rustle  of  silk  and  satin  which 
gently  indicated  the  relief  of  the  hearers.  I 
doubt  whether  anything  has  done  so  much 
harm  to  the  pulpit  as  the  impression  which 
has  gone  abroad,  that  we  preachers  do  not 
face  the  tremendous  sayings  of  Christ  with 
real  faith  and  courage,  but  rather  that  we  fall 
back  on  critical  theories,  and  explain  to  our 
amenable  congregations  that  the  more  diffi- 
cult commands  of  Christ  are  probably  textual 
corruptions  due  to  a  later  and  ascetic  age, 
and  in  any  case  need  not  vex  the  peace  or 
alter  the  conduct  of  the  twentieth  century. 
Yet  these  sayings  of  Jesus  blaze  and  burn. 
What  use  is  our  New  Testament  if  it  is  not  a 
very  furnace  of  Truth  into  which  men's  souls 
are  plunged  and  purified,  and  saved  so  as  by 
fire? 

I  have  no  belief  whatever  in  ascetic  and 


128       THE  ROMANCE  OF  PREACHING 

monastic  systems,  which  seem  to  me  to  re- 
quire an  unchristian,  and  even  anti-Chris- 
tian theory  of  life.  But  I  confess  to  you  I  am 
impressed  by  the  fact  that  both  Athanasius 
and  Chrysostom  had  a  monastic  preparation 
for  their  public  ministry.  Youth  needs  to  be 
austere  with  itself.  Self-discipline  can  be 
learned  in  better  places  than  the  cell  of  the 
anchorite,  but  it  must  be  learned  if  the  minis- 
try is  not  to  make  shipwreck.  These  men 
learned  how  to  do  without  things ;  they 
learned  to  be  content  with  simplicity  ;  they 
learned  that  life  "  consisteth  not  in  the  abun- 
dance of  the  things  a  man  possesseth."  They 
definitely  crucified  some  of  the  subordinate 
ambitions.  They  got  fairly  through  the 
crust  of  civilization  and  made  contact  with 
the  realities  that  lie  at  its  heart.  Such  men 
when  they  come  to  deal  with  shams  and  illu- 
sions are  apt  to  be  severe  iconoclasts,  like 
Elijah  and  John  the  Baptist,  but  they  know 
how  to  sear  men's  souls  and  shake  their 
consciences. 

Sometimes  I  am  tempted  to  think  that  the 
defect  of  our  modern  ministerial  preparation 


THE   ROYALTY   OF  THE   PULPIT        1 29 

for  the  ministry  is  that  we  have  too  much  to 
enjoy  and  too  little  to  endure.  When  we  go 
out  into  the  arena  our  thews  and  sinews  are 
too  soft ;  and  in  the  first  shock  we  go  down 
in  the  dust,  and  sometimes  it  takes  bitter 
years  to  find  our  feet.  When  we  are  depend- 
ent on  the  superfluities  of  Hfe  we  are  not  so 
Hkely  to  be  able  to  speak  out  our  truth,  if  by 
so  doing  we  may  be  in  danger  of  losing  them. 
Do  not  let  me  be  misunderstood.  I  am  the 
last  man  to  underrate  to  you  the  virtues 
of  tact  and  discretion.  It  was  Athanasius' 
distinction  that  his  own  people  loved  him  and 
trusted  him  without  reserve.  He  had  the  two 
endowments  with  which  any  minister  can  go 
far — common  sense  and  the  gift  of  humour. 
Besides,  I  think  too  highly  of  mankind  to  be- 
lieve that  as  a  rule  they  resent  the  ministry 
that  deals  faithfully  and  affectionately  with 
them.  Dr.  Dale  used  to  say  that  people 
talked  of  saying  faithful  things  when  they 
meant  saying  disagreeable  things ;  and  the 
communicated  love  of  Christ  to  our  hearts 
ought  ever  to  forbid  us  to  be  censorious, 
offensive  and  truculent  where  our  duty  is  to 


I30       THE   ROMANCE   OF   PREACHING 

Speak  the  truth  with  love.  I  have  not  in- 
tended to  leave  that  side  of  things  out  of 
sight.  But  if  Athanasius  and  his  heroic  min- 
istry has  one  message  more  than  another  for 
us,  it  is  as  to  the  sovereignty  of  the  Truth  we 
hold  over  all  human  souls,  and  the  royalty 
of  the  preacher's  office  when  he  knows  that 
God  has  given  to  him  a  message  which  all 
without  distinction  must  hear  and  heed. 

The  second  aspect  of  Athanasius'  ministry 
which  I  would  ask  you  to  consider  is  the 
preacher  as  controversialist.  When  we  take 
down  our  histories  and  read  the  extraordinary 
story  of  how  an  abstract  theological  proposi- 
tion, framed  in  the  curiously  flabby  mind  of 
Arius,  set  the  world  on  fire,  we  are  oppressed 
by  a  sense  of  despair  of  ever  being  able  to 
understand  an  age  in  which  such  things  could 
be.  Neither  do  the  facts  become  more  intel- 
ligible as  we  see  how  secular  policies  were 
affected  by  it,  and  the  fortunes  of  an  empire 
fluctuated  as  the  Arian  tide  flowed  or  ebbed. 
But  after  all,  human  destinies  are  settled  in  the 
world  of  thought  and  ideas.  The  doctrine  of 
Homoousianism  in  the  mouth  of  Athanasius 


THE   ROYALTY   OF  THE   PULPIT        I3I 

meant  the  unity  of  empire  even  as  the  word 
Justification  on  the  Hps  of  Luther  meant  the 
Reformation  of  Europe  and  a  free  Western 
civilization.  Faber  threw  into  the  verse  of  a 
hymn  a  great  truth  when  he  wrote  : 

"  Workman  of  God  !  oh  lose  not  heart, 
Buf  learn  what  God  is  like  ; 
And  in  the  darkest  battle-field 
Thou  shalt  know  where  to  strike." 

That  is  why  I  take  it  the  first  content  of 
the  Church's  consciousness  must  be  to  know 
•'  what  God  is  like  "  ;  otherwise  its  very  fight- 
ing power  is  paralyzed,  and  its  blows  are 
aimed  uncertainly.  It  does  not  surprise  me, 
therefore,  that  the  first  great  controversy  in 
the  Christian  Church  should  be  in  regard  to 
the  nature  of  God  ;  and  we  shall  generally  be 
agreed  that  as  against  the  crude  and  fatuous 
theory  of  Arius,  Athanasius'  protest  for  the 
unity  of  the  Godhead  was  infinitely  more  no- 
ble and  dignified ;  even  as  the  orations  of 
Athanasius  are  a  monument  of  massive 
thought  and  argument  in  comparison  with 
the  dervish-like  jingles  in  which  Arius  en- 
deavoured to  popularize  his  pet  heresy.     But 


132        THE   ROMANCE  OF   PREACHING 

it  is  quite  true  that  from  the  far  shore  on 
which  we  stand  we  look  across  "  the  dark 
backward  and  abysm  of  time,"  and  see  those 
ages  of  theological  cyclone  and  volcanic  ac- 
tion with  wondering  gaze.  That  is  very 
largely  because  we  have  ourselves  fallen  upon 
the  inglorious  days  of  Quietism.  It  is  a 
strange  irony  if  you  come  to  think  of  it  that 
sluggishness  and  apathy  mark  our  religious 
life  to-day  in  what  we  speak  of  as  the  stren- 
uous West,  and  that  this  great  Arian  contro- 
versy was  fought  out  with  frenzied  fervour  in 
what  we  speak  of  as  the  still  and  tranquil 
Orient.  Certainly  the  Orient  was  not  sluggish 
and  stagnant  when  Athanasius  was  fighting 
the  world  for  his  faith. 

You  remember  the  cynic  historian's  de- 
scription of  how  the  great  problems  laid 
their  grip  of  every  huckster  in  the  market- 
place, who,  before  he  served  you  with  mer- 
chandise, or  counted  out  your  small  change, 
would  demand  your  opinion  as  to  the  rela- 
tions of  the  Persons  of  the  Godhead.  Very 
likely,  I  grant,  to  produce  a  plague  of  theo- 
logical prigs  I     But  would  it  do  us  any  harm 


THE   ROYALTY   OF  THE   PULPIT        1 33 

to-day,  in  your  land  or  in  mine,  if  some  great 
question  of  eternal  things  were  once  again  to 
be  supreme,  and  to  awaken  in  the  chattering 
chaffering  crowds  of  the  market-places  a 
higher  curiosity?  Is  it  after  all  so  noble 
and  superior  an  attitude  of  mind,  this  modern 
one  of  ours,  that  nothing  matters  ;  that  high 
thoughts  about  Deity  are  wasted  time ;  that 
sublime  speculations  and  doctrinal  contro- 
versies are  the  signs  of  an  inferior  and  de- 
generate age  ?  I  am  not  here  to  apologize 
for  the  controversial  language  of  Athanasius. 
Dean  Stanley  made  a  careful  but  not  ex- 
haustive collection  of  his  favourite  epithets 
for  his  theological  opponents — "  devils,  anti- 
christs, maniacs,  Jews,  polytheists,  atheists, 
dogs,  wolves,  lions,  hares,  chameleons,  hy- 
dras, eels,  cuttlefish,  gnats,  beetles,  leeches." 
His  vocabulary,  it  is  plain,  might  have  won 
for  him  distinction  in  a  polidcal  career. 

But  in  theology  to-day  we  have  reached 
serene  heights  of  unruffled  calm.  The  chaste 
soul  of  the  most  definite  of  our  modern  dog- 
matists would  never  be  conscious  of  sufficient 
provocation  to  depart  from  the  language  of 


134        THE   ROMANCE   OF   PREACHING 

self-possession  and  politeness  even  if  he  in- 
dubitably believed  that  the  errors  of  some 
other  teacher  were  poisoning  men's  souls. 
But  do  we  not  suggest  a  contrast?  The- 
ology to-day  is  for  the  most  part  a  product 
of  the  academic  life.  In  the  days  of  Atha- 
nasius  it  was  hammered  out  in  the  wilderness 
and  the  cell.  Men  forged  their  beliefs,  like 
thunderbolts,  at  the  centre  of  the  storm.  The 
faiths  that  clothed  their  souls  were  tested  in 
the  furnace  heated  sevenfold.  You  can  still 
tell  the  difference  between  the  article  of  a 
creed  cunningly  worded  to  evade  a  diffi- 
culty, conciliate  a  doubter  or  confound  an 
enemy,  and  an  affirmation  which  is  the  cry 
of  a  great  soul  for  some  truth  which  is  a 
fixed  star  in  its  firmament  and  without  which 
it  will  blunder  along  its  way.  It  is  this  pas- 
sionate sincerity  that  lends  dignity  to  con- 
troversy. As  we  read  the  story,  all  Atha- 
nasius'  extravagances  and  personalities  drop 
away  from  him,  and  we  only  see  the  prophet 
who  cared  so  supremely  for  the  glory  of  his 
God  and  the  honour  of  his  Saviour,  that  he 
was   prepared   to   stand   alone   against    the 


THE   ROYALTY   OF  THE   PULPIT        I35 

world,  until  the  truth  he  saw  was  recognized 
and  acknowledged  by  all. 

My  brethren,  it  is  an  open  question  with 
me  whether  either  the  evils  of  controversy 
or  the  gains  of  compromise  are  as  great  as 
we  often  think  them.     Controversy  is  noble 
or  ignoble  according  to  the  spirit  in  which 
it   is   conducted.     What   is   referred   to,  ad 
nauseam,  as  the  virtue  of  compromise  and 
accommodation   usually   means   the   painful 
discovery   of    some   colourless    and    almost 
meaningless  formula  in  which  two  antago- 
nistic ideas,  whittled  down  to  their  minimum, 
are   supposed   to   be  peaceably  interred.     I 
am  always  comforted  to  know  that  you  can- 
not really  bury  any  belief  alive.     You  cannot 
bury  it  until  you  can  truly  say,  "  peace  to  its 
ashesr    It  belongs  to  the  glory  of  Athanasius 
that,  even  living  when  he  did,  he  had  no  be- 
lief in  the  coercion  of  conscience  by  force. 
He  was,  rather,  like  the  dear  old  priest  in 
Praed's  poem,  who 

''  Held,  in  spite  of  all  his  learning, 
That  if  a  man's  belief  is  bad 
It  will  not  be  improved  by  burning." 


136       THE   ROMANCE  OF   PREACHING 

This  zealot  for  truth,  and  even  for  dogma, 
believed  in  fighting  his  battle  out  with  the 
weapon  of  argument,  reason  and  persuasion, 
and  winning  the  only  victory  that  is  honour- 
able to  a  Christian  combatant.  Nobody  ex- 
pects that  our  battles  of  to-day  or  to-morrow 
will  prove  a  reproduction  of  the  old  Arian 
strife ;  though  there  are  more  unlikely  things 
than  a  keen  revival  one  of  these  days  of  a 
controversy  as  to  the  being  of  God  and  the 
nature  of  the  relations  between  the  Father 
and  the  Son.  But  if  it  should  not  be  your 
lot  to  live  through  an  age  of  theological  dis- 
pute, there  are  other  controversies  upon  us 
in  which  the  knights  of  the  Church  of  Jesus 
may  not  refuse  to  quit  them  like  men. 
There  has  never  been  a  generation  yet  in 
which  the  Lord  has  not  had  a  controversy 
with  His  people  ;  and  it  is  a  test  of  our  right 
to  be  where  we  are,  whether  we  hear  the 
Lord's  controversy  or  not.  We  cannot  rank 
ourselves  under  the  Christian  flag  without 
conceding  certain  human  rights,  which  no 
existing  social  system  that  I  know  of,  ade- 
quately and  practically  interprets. 


THE  ROYALTY   OF   THE   PULPIT        I37 

The  contrast  between  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount  and  a  civilization  like  that  of  Europe, 
based  on  force  and  fear,  does  not  grow  less 
violent  as  our  people  become  more  intelli- 
gent. Nor  can  a  civilization  that  includes 
the  extremes  of  pampered  luxury  and  grind- 
ing poverty  live  in  the  light  of  a  renascent 
Christian  ethics.  Controversy  there  must 
be  on  behalf  of  the  unity  of  humanity  as 
strong  and  uncompromising  as  Athanasius 
ever  waged  for  the  unity  of  Deity.  When 
many  of  you  go  forth  to  the  field  where  in 
Milton's  words  "  immortal  garlands  are  to  be 
won  not  ivithout  dust  and  heat'\-  when  in  the 
war  for  Christian  Righteousness  as  well  as  for 
the  Christian  Faith  you  flash  your  maiden 
swords,  I  can  only  beseech  you  that  the  spirit 
of  your  warfare  may  be  the  spirit  which  our 
Captain  made  unique — a  love  that  no  bitter- 
ness can  alienate,  a  peace  that  no  strife  can 
disturb,  and  a  gaiety  of  soul  which  can  take 
the  rubs  and  knocks  without  melancholy, 
acrimony,  or  self-pity. 

I  turn  now  to  a  brief  consideration  of  the 
life  and  work  of  Chrysostom,   who  has  al- 


138        THE   ROMANCE   OF  PREACHING 

ways  enjoyed  a  place  of  preeminence  among 
Christian  preachers  and  the  world's  famous 
orators,  and  who  may  suggest  many  lessons 
to  the  more  ambitious  among  us  who  are 
resolved  to  achieve  and  to  practice  the  craft 
of  a  master  of  assemblies.  So  far  as  I  know, 
Chrysostom  was  the  first  preacher  to  bring  to 
the  service  of  the  Gospel  all  the  arts  of 
oratory  which  are  relied  upon  in  the  law- 
courts  and  the  forum.  Nobody  knew  better 
than  he  how  to  take  captive  the  intellects  of 
his  hearers  in  the  toils  of  a  closely-knit  argu- 
ment ;  and,  indeed,  it  would  be  true  to  say 
that  he  observed  the  golden  rule  that  rhetoric 
should  always  be  the  servant  of  logic,  even 
as  in  a  great  picture  the  absence  of  accuracy 
of  drawing  and  perspective  can  never  be 
wholly  atoned  for  by  the  most  resplendent 
colouring.  First  of  all,  he  knew  clearly 
where  he  was  going,  and  saw  to  it  that  his 
hearers  could  not  fail  to  know.  Afterwards 
he  devoted  all  the  resources  of  his  knowl- 
edge and  imagination  to  add  to  the  interest 
and  profit  of  the  journey.  He  must  indeed 
have  been  a  formidable  critic  and  antagonist, 


THE   ROYALTY   OF  THE   PULPIT        1 39 

for  his  powers  of  irony  and  satire  were  un- 
rivalled, and  no  person  in  high  place  who 
came  under  his  scathing  censures  was  ever 
likely  to  forget  it.  Satire  is  a  dangerous 
weapon  to  handle  ;  and  only  a  kindly  and 
genial  form  of  it  is  ever  likely  to  produce  a 
Christian  end  in  repentance  or  conversion  ; 
and  perhaps  in  his  last  years  of  exile  and 
persecution,  Chrysostom  himself  may  have 
wondered  whether  other  weapons  than  the 
lash  of  fiery  and  sarcastic  speech  might  not 
have  profited  the  kingdom  of  God  more. 
Moreover,  if  satire  is  always  a  questionable 
instrument  for  achieving  the  real  ends  of 
preaching,  rhetoric  is  equally  an  indulgence 
that  needs  to  be  carefully  guarded.  Chrys- 
ostom's  courage  in  rebuking  the  Empress 
Eudocia  was  admirable,  but  his  task  would 
have  been  many  times  easier  if  he  had  not 
allowed  himself  to  be  carried  away  at  first  on 
the  tide  of  rhetoric,  to  inflated  and  fulsome 
panegyric  and  adulation. 

Having  uttered  those  two  warnings,  I  go 
on  to  say  that  Chrysostom's  style  is  a  model 
of  what  Christian  eloquence  at  its  highest 


I40       THE   ROMANCE   OF   PREACHING 

can  be.  You  and  I  live  in  a  time  when,  as  I 
shall  often  have  occasion  to  insist,  the  preacher 
has  lost  the  sense  of  the  splendour  and 
romance  of  his  calling.  This  loss  has  afifected 
us  in  many  ways.  The  colours  have  faded 
out  of  our  sky.  The  universe  has  turned 
gray  around  us.  The  glory  and  radiance  of 
the  dawn  have  suffered  some  eclipse.  Our 
range  of  vision,  and  our  confidence  of  victory 
are  alike  attenuated.  In  consequence,  that 
highest  form  of  rhetoric  which  is  the  glow 
and  poetry  of  faith  and  enthusiasm  becomes 
almost  impossible  to  us.  For  rhetoric  is  the 
natural  language  of  emotion  and  imagina- 
tion. Where  there  is  no  real  depth  of  feeling 
it  is  artificial  and  stilted  and  tiresome.  But 
when  the  passion  of  the  heart  is  strong  and 
deep  it  will  express  itself  with  some  splendour 
of  Pre-Raphaelite  colouring.  The  preacher 
has  never  really  been  thrilled  by  the  ideal  of 
his  vocation  who  has  not  wanted  to  set  it  to 
music,  as  Robert  Burns  set  Nature  to  song, 
or  as  Turner  transferred  her  glories  to  canvas. 
It  is  hardly  necessary  to  say  that  the  rhet- 
oric of  Chrysostom  has  little  or  nothing  in 


THE   ROYALTY   OF  THE   PULPIT        I4I 

common  with  that  disease  of  the  pulpit  egoist 
which  manifests  itself  in  pretentiousness  and 
polysyllables.  If  you  want  the  model  of 
peerless  eloquence  it  is  to  be  found  in  the 
most  familiar  passage  of  the  New  Testament, 
and  it  may  interest  you  to  count  the  words 
which  are  of  more  than  one  syllable,  *'  Come 
unto  Me,  all  ye  that  labour  and  are  heavy 
laden,  and  I  will  give  you  rest.  Take  My 
yoke  upon  you  and  learn  of  Me,  for  I  am 
meek  and  lowly  of  heart,  and  ye  shall  find 
rest  unto  your  souls.  For  My  yoke  is  easy 
and  My  burden  is  light."  There  are  great 
passages  in  Lincoln  and  in  Bright — our  two 
supreme  modern  masters  of  Saxon  speech — 
which  are  as  simple  as  this,  and  yet  similarly 
charged  with  emotion  that  leaves  none  of  us 
unaffected.  No,  rhetoric  is  a  nobler  thing 
than  the  turgid  recital  of  redundant  epithets 
and  high-sounding  substantives.  To  how 
small  a  modicum  of  thought  can  some  rhe- 
torical efforts  be  reduced  when  you  have 
shaken  the  sawdust  out  1  But  as  against  the 
modern  taste  for  Christianity  in  capsules,  and 
for  the  tersest,  most  prosaic  and  least  emo- 


142        THE   ROMANCE   OF   PREACHING 

tional  statement  of  fact  and  argument,  I  do 
venture  to  break  a  lance  for  Chrysostom. 

The  supreme  merit  of  Chrysostom  is  that 
he  never  for  one  moment  forgets  that  he  is 
deaUng  with  human  beings  and  human  life. 
He  is  not  solely  concerned  with  making  good 
certain  logical  or  theological  propositions. 
While  his  legal  training  is  invaluable  to  him, 
his  is  no  narrow  canonistical  intellect,  nor  is 
his  outlook  upon  mankind  less  human  be- 
cause of  the  careful  development  of  his  rea- 
soning powers.  Before  his  eyes  the  great 
pageantry  of  the  people's  life  always  moves  ; 
and  in  his  sermons  you  will  find  a  vivid  pic- 
ture of  his  times.  On  his  canvas  are  brilliant 
splashes  of  colour  ;  for  it  was  his  object  to 
hold  up  the  mirror  to  the  multitude  and  com- 
pel them  to  see  what  their  existence  was  like. 
It  has  been  truly  said  that  the  pages  of 
Chrysostom  present  us  with  a  "  cosmical 
panorama."  The  pomp  and  pride  of  the  Im- 
perial court,  and  the  luxurious  mode  of  life 
of  an  Oriental  aristocracy  are  so  powerfully 
portrayed,  that  after  fifteen  hundred  years  you 


THE   ROYALTY   OF  THE   PULPIT        I43 

can  almost  hear  the  strains  of  music  at  some 
princely  banquet  or  be  conscious  of  the  per- 
fumes that  scented  the  raiment  of  the  feasters. 
Equally  lifelike  are  his  descriptions  of  the 
hippodrome,  with  its  wild  scenes  of  racing 
and  gaming ;  while,  if  I  may  quote  again, 
"Even  the  rope-dancers,  jugglers,  con- 
jurers, fortune-tellers,  buffoons,  mountebanks 
mingled  with  grave  philosophers  with  long 
beards,  staff  and  cloak,  were  grouped  to- 
gether in  his  homiletical  sketches." 

Here  lies  his  charm  and  his  power.  This 
man  of  giant  brain,  and  legal  and  monastic 
training,  is  nevertheless  himself  a  human  be- 
ing, with  a  warm  heart  and  wide  knowledge 
of  his  brothers  and  sisters  in  the  life  of  his 
city.  He  has  mingled  with  them  in  their 
pleasures,  has  pitied  their  follies,  sympathized 
with  their  temptations,  trembled  for  their  sins, 
wept  with  them  for  their  griefs,  and  laughed 
with  them  in  their  frolics  and  diversions. 
The  people  flocked  to  him  and  hung  upon 
his  lips,  not  only  because  of  his  oratory,  but 
because  he  knew  them  so  well,  loved  them  so 
much,  and  talked  to  them  about  those  actual 


144        THE   ROMANCE   OF   PREACHING 

homely  facts  of  daily  life  which  make  up  the 
greater  part  of  every  one's  existence. 

Here  then  we  have  two  qualities  in 
Chrysostom  which  in  their  combination  make 
him  unique — he  is  a  Man  of  the  Word 
and  a  Man  of  the  World.  The  Homilies  of 
Chrysostom  are  to  me  a  phenomenal  pro- 
duction. In  their  close  and  minute  analysis 
of  Scripture,  and  courage  of  exposition  they 
are  an  anticipation  of  the  best  modern 
criticism.  Chrysostom  himself  is  saturated 
with  the  Scripture,  and  is  determined  that  his 
audiences  shall  be  taught  to  base  their  lives 
upon  the  principle  of  Holy  Writ.  In  those 
days  when  the  writings  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment were  comparatively  so  recent,  and 
were  so  little  known  to  the  masses,  this  great 
preacher  felt  that  their  best  hope  of  progress 
lay  in  their  systematic  education  in  the  letter 
and  spirit  of  the  Scriptures  of  our  faith.  He 
thus  made  himself  the  popular  interpreter  of 
the  Christian  documents,  always  endeavour- 
ing to  get  at  the  exact  sense,  and  to  preach  the 
truth  honesdy  and  fearlessly.  At  the  same 
time  by  virtue  of  his  catholic  experience  he 


THE   ROYALTY   OF  THE   PULPIT        145 

is,  in  the  best  sense  of  a  much-abused  term, 
a  man  of  the  world ;  and  he  is  resolute  to 
apply  the  Gospel  ethics  over  the  whole  wide 
area  of  human  life  and  affairs.  That  is  why 
he  must  know  at  first  hand,  life  at  the  court, 
life  in  the  bazaars,  life  at  the  games,  and  life 
in  the  streets,  the  school,  the  homes  of  the 
people.  Again  and  again  we  find  him,  with 
all  his  admiration  for  the  devout  monk,  pro- 
testing that  Christ's  laws  and  privileges  are 
for  all  men  and  women  without  exception 
and  "  not  for  solitaries  only."  If  it  be  not 
possible,  he  argues,  in  the  secular  life,  and  in 
wedded  life,  to  attain  the  Beatitudes,  then 
Christ  has  destroyed,  and  not  saved,  all  men. 
No  preacher  in  all  the  Christian  ages  had  a 
clearer  conception  of  the  great  truth  that  the 
Evangel  of  Life  in  Christ  is  for  all  people, 
at  all  times  and  in  all  places,  and  that  no 
exigencies  of  business,  politics  or  pleasure 
can  relieve  any  of  us  of  the  duty  of  obedience 
to  the  laws  of  the  kingdom  of  God. 

I  notice  further  for  our  own  instruction  that 
the  Homilies  of  Chrysostom  are  not  the  ex- 
positions of  a  lectni'-er,  but,  what  is  very  differ- 


146        THE   ROMANCE   OF   PREACHING 

ent,  the  expositions  of  a  preacher.  There  is 
a  very  wide  contrast  between  one  who  is  only 
a  teacher,  an  expositor,  a  lecturer,  an  essayist, 
and  one  who  is  a  preacher  and  a  prophet. 
It  has  always  seemed  to  me  that  there  is 
much  force  in  the  modern  appeal  for  more 
expository  preaching.  I  only  submit  that  it 
must  be  preaching.  The  class-room  is  one 
place,  the  pulpit  is  another.  The  closest 
possible  application  is  needful  in  the  study 
if  we  are  to  be  sound  interpreters  of  the 
Gospel;  and  the  new  Renaissance  which 
some  of  us  will  live  to  see,  when  the  interest 
of  the  people  will  be  rekindled  in  the  best 
and  greatest  of  all  books,  may  very  likely 
come  along  the  line  of  systematic  and  scien- 
tific exposition.  But  we  have  got  to  preach 
our  exposition.  I  mean,  that  the  same  pas- 
sion for  souls,  the  same  constraining  love  of 
humanity,  must  burn  and  glow  in  our  ex- 
pository discourses  that  make  it  possible  to 
warm  our  hearts  at  Chrysostom's  Homilies 
to  the  present  day.  Men  must  be  brought 
to  see  that  in  the  Bible  one  end  is  sought  by 
divers  means  and  in  divers  portions,  and  that 


THE   ROYALTY  OF  THE   PULPIT        I47 

end  is  the  salvation  and  happiness  of  all 
mankind.  In  other  words  if  the  world  is 
to  be  interested  in  the  Bible,  it  must  be  con- 
vinced that  the  Bible  is  interested  in  the 
world ;  and  that  the  modern  world  is  made 
up  of  just  the  same  great  root  problems  of 
life  and  death,  joy  and  sorrow,  vice  and 
virtue  that  Isaiah  wrestled  with,  and  on 
which  the  Lord  Christ  shed  His  ineffable 
and  unfading  light. 

The  advent  of  Chrysostom  is,  I  think,  the 
dawn  of  a  new  epoch  in  preaching.  True, 
there  is  nothing  new  in  the  authority  which 
he  asserted  for  his  message.  In  his  courage 
and  freedom  in  dealing  with  the  wealthy  and 
highly-placed  he  was  the  worthy  contempo- 
rary of  Athanasius.  There  was  nothing  new 
in  the  risks  he  ran,  or  the  afflictions  he  suf- 
fered. He  was  one  of  those  who  well  knew 
that  the  preacher's  lot  is  a  desperate  war 
with  organized  evil  and  throned  iniquity. 
The  length  of  his  public  ministry  is  a  tribute 
to  his  moral  ascendancy.  But  we  are  not  as- 
tonished, though  we  may  stand  aghast,  when 
at  last  the  forces  of  hell  are  let  loose  upon 


148        THE   ROMANCE  OF  PREACHING 

him,  and  once  more  in  history  Jezebel  drives 
EHjah  to  exile  and  the  desert,  though  in  this 
case  the  prophet  was  to  return  no  more. 
The  long-drawn-out  agony  of  his  last  exile  it 
is  not  for  me  to  describe.  He  died  in  that 
same  far  lone  spot  among  the  mountains  of 
Asia  Minor,  where  many  centuries  afterwards 
another  martyr-evangelist,  Henry  Martyn, 
burned  out  for  God.  His  dust  rested  there 
until  the  day  when  with  pontifical  splendour 
amid  the  tears  and  reverence  of  a  subsequent 
generation  and  solemn  prayers  and  penances 
of  princes  and  people,  it  was  translated  to 
the  City  of  Constantine  where  the  better  part 
of  his  life-work  had  been  done. 

It  has  been  my  aim  that  the  significant 
facts  about  these  two  great  pulpit  orators 
should  emphasize  themselves  for  us  without 
my  italicizing  them.  But  perhaps  by  way  of 
summary  I  may  gather  together  two  or  three 
suggestions  that  are  well  worth  your  consid- 
eration. I  think  we  want  a  new  pulpit  ora- 
tory that  will  be  free  from  the  vice  of  turgid 
rhetoric,  but  that  will  be  the  rich  fruit  of  a  new 


THE   ROYALTY   OF  THE   PULPIT        I49 

vision  of  our  world-conquering  Faith.  Some- 
thing has  got  to  happen  to  us ;  some  magic 
change  must  pass  over  our  spirits  ;  and  be- 
neath the  inspiration  of  the  new  revelation  of 
Deity  and  Humanity  our  speech  will  clothe 
itself  with  colour  and  beauty  as  naturally  and 
inevitably  as  the  spring  adorns  and  decorates 
the  earth.  I  am  one  of  those  who  believe 
that  the  churches  have  never  been  so  rich  in 
scholarship,  and  so  competent  in  criticism. 
But  I  am  not  sure  that  any  human  being  has 
been  inspired  to  attempt  the  heights  of  love 
and  life  because  he  has  been  thrilled  with  the 
realization  of  the  composite  character  of  the 
Book  of  Genesis.  Science  is  the  one  author- 
ity left,  I  know,  to  which  we  all  do  obeisance, 
and  in  the  presence  of  which  we  take  off  our 
shoes  from  our  feet.  But  I  sometimes 
imagine  the  mere  scientist  standing  in  the 
presence  of  the  wonder  and  glory  of  Niagara, 
with  its  flashing,  flying  waters,  and  iridescent 
waves,  and  summing  it  all  up  in  the  terse  and 
eloquent  formula  H2  O.  I  am  all  for  scien- 
tific accuracy  and  precision ;  but  I  confess 
that  the  Bible  is  more  to  me  than  is  summed 


I50        THE   ROMANCE   OF   PREACHING 

up  in  the  formulas  of  critical  analysis.  Its 
magic,  its  mystery,  its  poetry,  its  glory  es- 
cape the  skill  of  those  patient  investigators 
who  track  its  secret  in  the  dissecting  room. 
Athanasius'  theology  may  have  been  wrong  ; 
but  nothing  can  destroy  the  fact  that  he  trod 
the  desert  as  he  trod  the  marble  halls  of 
princes  bathed  in  the  light  that  never  was  on 
sea  or  land.  Let  us  be  quite  certain  that  in 
our  honest  ambition  to  understand  all  mys- 
teries and  all  knowledge  we  are  not  strangers 
to  that  experience  of  the  Love  Divine  of 
which  there  is  no  scientific  explanation  pos- 
sible except  that  it  is  shed  abroad  in  our 
hearts  by  the  Holy  Spirit  that  is  given  unto 
us. 

Once  more,  let  us  think  of  these  two  great 
apostles  together.  If  I  may  make  the  rough 
distinction,  Athanasius  preached  more  about 
Deity  and  Chrysostom  more  about  humanity. 
Chrysostom  I  think  knew  men  better,  and 
Athanasius  I  think  knew  God  better.  I  have 
spoken  to  little  purpose  if  I  have  failed  to 
bring  home  to  my  hearers,  that  I  believe  we 
need   men   in   the   ministry  who  know  and 


THE   ROYALTY   OF   THE   PULPIT        151 

sympathize  with  human  life  in  all  its  phases. 
But  to-day  I  close  upon  the  other  note.  It  is 
much  easier  to  talk  about  men  than  to  talk 
about  God.  It  is  a  rarer  thing  to  find  in  the 
pulpit  a  man  whose  mind  moves  naturally 
and  easily  in  the  sublimest  of  all  themes  and 
experiences,  than  to  find  a  man  in  the  pulpit 
who  can  talk  wisely  and  helpfully  about 
human  life.  But  it  is  the  condemnation  of 
the  Christian  preacher  when  his  audience 
comes  to  feel  that  though  he  knows  them 
very  well,  he  cannot  teach  them  to  know 
God,  whom  to  know  is  life  eternal.  Words- 
worth's lark,  as  you  remember,  with  nest 
upon  the  earth,  was  nevertheless  born  to  the 
freedom  of  the  upper  air,  and  knew  the 
secret  of  the  infinite  blue,  and  the  Christian 
prophet  and  orator  of  to-morrow,  I  doubt  not, 
must  equally  be  master  of  the  two  worlds 

"  True  to  the  kindred  points  of  Heaven  and  Home." 


LECTURE  V 

THE  RULERS  OF  PEOPLES : 
SAVONAROLA,  CALVIN  AND 
JOHN  KNOX 


LECTURE  V 

THE    RULERS  OF    PEOPLES:    SAVO- 
NAROLA, CALVIN  AND  JOHN  KNOX 

IT  should  never  be  forgotten  that  the 
preacher's  message  has  a  timeless  and 
a  timely  element  in  it.  Clearly,  the  his- 
torical facts  on  which  our  faith  is  built  can- 
not be  one  thing  in  one  generation  and  an- 
other in  another  ;  though  our  interpretations 
of  the  facts  may  and  will  change,  and  our  ap- 
plications of  the  teachings  they  convey  will 
change  also.  It  is  written  in  the  book  of 
Psalms,  in  what  I  have  often  felt  was  an  in- 
spired mistranslation,  "  Because  they  have  no 
changes,  therefore  they  fear  not  God."  The 
meaning  of  that  seemingly  cryptic  saying 
would  appear  to  be  that  we  cannot  really  be 
reverent  of  God's  law  of  life  and  progress,  the 
law  of  growth,  unless  we  are  prepared  for 
new  formulas  and  new  forms  under  which  the 
Truth  may  find  expression.  Whenever  a 
Christian  preacher  and  the  church  to  which 
155 


156        THE   ROMANCE   OF   PREACHING 

he  ministers  are  unprogressive,  tlie  interest 
taken  by  tiie  outside  public  in  their  existence 
becomes  mainly  an  antiquarian  one.  They 
are  no  longer  reckoned  among  those  living 
forces  that  mould  our  thought,  shape  our  in- 
stitutions, and  inspire  our  ideals.  We  hear  a 
great  deal  about  our  historic  faith,  and  much 
stress  is  laid  upon  the  fact  that  we  have 
nearly  two  thousand  years  of  eventful  history 
behind  us. 

But  that  is  an  argument  that  clearly  has  no 
weight  against  the  devotees  of  religions  which 
are  indefinitely  more  ancient.  I  hope  it  is 
not  straining  a  point  to  say,  that  the  charm  of 
Christianity  is  not  in  its  antiquity  but  in 
its  novelty  ;  not  in  the  fact  that  it  is  aged 
and  reverend,  but  in  the  fact  that  it  is 
eternally  young.  I  say  nothing  of  those 
strange  souls,  who  are  so  profoundly  uneasy 
in  the  life  of  to-day,  and  who  ever  turn  their 
wistful  eyes  backwards  to  the  paradise  of  the 
Middle  Ages.  They  are  not  of  their  century, 
and  the  century  does  not  belong  to  them. 
But  the  real  Church  of  God  ever  walks  the 
world  with   the  tireless  step,    the  eyes  for- 


THE   RULERS   OF  PEOPLES  1 57 

ward — gazing  eyes,  and  the  mobile  receptive 
spirit  of  youth.  If  ever  the  disciples  of  Christ 
were  to  become  a  society  in  which  the  ennuis 
and  dubieties  of  the  world  were  to  eat  like 
acid  into  its  enthusiasms  and  its  faiths,  it  is 
quite  clear  that  Christianity  would  be  at  the 
end  of  its  conquests.  What  all  other  religions, 
societies  and  institutions  envy  us,  is  the  magic 
of  rejuvenation.  So  far  from  transformations 
and  renaissances  having  any  terror  for  us  we 
know  that  with  us  they  belong  to  the  nature 
of  things.  History  has  in  this  respect  a 
heartening  tale  to  tell.  Christendom  has 
again  and  again,  if  I  may  use  the  apostolic 
language,  been  "  transformed  by  the  renewal 
of  the  mind." 

Great  and  beneficent  changes  of  doctrine 
have  swept  over  Europe.  New  truths  have 
arisen  whose  evangelists  have  forsaken  every- 
thing, yea  life  itself,  to  make  them  the  per- 
manent heritage  of  Christ's  people.  And 
with  these  renewals  of  the  faith  and  thought 
of  Christendom  there  has  gone  equally  rad- 
ical reconstruction  of  her  institutions.  All 
this  means  that  Christianity  has  possessed  to 


158        THE   ROMANCE   OF   PREACHING 

a  supreme  degree  that  power  of  adaptation  to 
changing  needs  and  conditions  which  is  the 
accepted  scientific  law  of  life  and  growth. 
Wiicn  the  great  apostle  declared,  "I  am  be- 
come all  things  to  all  men  if  by  any  means  I 
may  save  some,"  he  laid  down  the  principle 
of  Christian  opportunism.  He  was  not  leav- 
ing out  of  account  the  unchangeable  and 
timeless  element  in  his  ministry,  but  he  was 
taking  count  of  the  timely  element.  He 
boasted,  as  you  remember,  of  his  own  versa- 
tility. He  could  become  as  a  Greek  to  the 
Greek,  as  a  Roman  to  the  Roman,  as  a  Jew  to 
the  Jew.  He  made  it  his  business  to  under- 
stand his  audiences,  to  meet  them  on  their 
own  ground,  and  to  appreciate  different 
points  of  view.  Especially  in  dealing  with 
his  avowed  antagonists,  he  was  resolved  to 
know  their  beliefs,  their  prejudices,  their 
passions,  so  that  in  the  science  of  "  parry 
antl  thrust"  he  should  not  find  himself 
"beating  the  air."  That  was  why  Paul 
tlid  not  hesitate  to  withstand  Peter  to  his 
face,  in  defense  of  freedom,  and  over  against 
the   theory    that    it   is  the   business  of  Chris- 


THE   RULERS   OF   PEOPLES  159 

tianity  to  impose  uniformity  of  custom  and 
ceremony  upon  men  and  women  of  diverse 
races  and  manners  of  life.  It  was  the  com- 
mon sense  of  the  apostle  Paul,  and  the  tenacity 
with  which  he  clung-  to  the  principle  of  op- 
portunism that  saved  Christendom,  and  made 
a  world-wide  evangelism  possible.  Again 
and  again,  the  largest  interests  of  the  kingdom 
have  been  safeguarded  by  those  heroic 
preachers  who  had  the  soul  of  romance  in 
them,  and  who  would  not  be  bound  hand  and 
foot  by  ecclesiastical  red-tape. 

The  great  merit  of  Paul's  audacious  policy 
was,  that  he  was  a  strategist  who  thought  out 
his  strategy  on  the  actual  field  of  war,  and 
not  in  some  remote  Jerusalem  war-office 
where  parchment  and  sealing-wax  were  more 
plentiful  than  experience  and  foresight.  The 
most  fatal  of  all  the  Church's  dreams  has  been 
the  dream  of  uniformity.  Even  Paul's  splen- 
did courage  and  example  were  not  equal  to 
ridding  the  Church  of  this  dangerous  delusion. 
But  this  we  can  say :  all  those  spiritual  lead- 
ers, in  whom  the  fires  of  the  Gospel  have 
manifestly  burned,  even  when  they  have  been 


l6o        THE   ROMANCE  OF   PREACHING 

most  reverent  of  authority,  have  found  some 
way  out  of  the  fetters  and  manacles  that 
chafed  their  limbs  and  limited  their  activity. 
Thus  Xavier  and  St.  Francis  could  not  be  re- 
strained from  transgressing  the  strict  order 
of  the  Church  of  Rome ;  nor  Wesley  and 
Whitefield  abandon  their  inspired  errand  be- 
cause its  fulfillment  meant  the  violation  of 
those  supposed  decencies  and  proprieties 
which  had  made  the  Anglicanism  of  their  day 
so  prim  and  safe,  so  dull  and  dead.  To  the 
apostles  of  uniformity  everything  is  regulated 
by  unchangeable  routine.  There  is  no  room 
for  surprises.  All  departures  from  precedent 
are  extravagances.  The  spirit  of  God  is  care- 
fully restricted  to  well-defined  functions,  and 
within  a  limited  area.  Hence  the  spiritual 
life  of  the  people  of  God  must  not  overflow 
the  appointed  channels. 

Such  is  the  theory  of  ecclesiasticism.  But 
the  prophet  is  the  one  man  who  upsets  the 
calculations  of  the  prelate.  He  is  the  man  of 
soul  with  a  genius  for  the  unexpected  and  the 
unprecedented.  He  is  a  spiritual  Samson 
who  is  never  happier  in  mind  than  when  he 


THE  RULERS  OF  PEOPLES     l6l 

is  bound  with  the  futile  withes  of  the  Philis- 
tines.    And  I  make  bold  to  say  that  the  great-  ', 
est  fact  in  Christian  history  is  not  the  author- 
ity  of  the   priest   but   the   authority  of  the 
prophet.     I  do  not  underrate  the  prodigious 
power  of  ecclesiasticism.     It  has  often  been 
cruelly   and   mercilessly   exercised,  and   the 
measure  of  external  conformity  that  it  has  en- 
forced has  been  very  great.     But  the  prophet  . 
has  wielded  a  mightier  power ;  for  he  has  j 
swayed  the  inner  world  of  men's  consciences,  j 
intellects  and  souls.     He  has  governed  and  i 
guided    motives.     He    has    inspired    ideals  ; 
of  life  and  service.     And  in  that  way,  with- 
out the  mailed  arm  of  material  force,  he  has 
set  in   motion   beneficent   reformations  and 
even  revolutions,  and  has  more  profoundly 
influenced  and  affected  the  world-movements 
which  make  human  history  what  it  is,  than  all 
the  power  of  the  ecclesiastical  machine. 

It  is  my  intention  in  this  lecture,  to  invite 
your  consideration  to  three  outstanding 
examples  of  Christian  preachers  who  veri- 
tably became  the  conscience  of  the  com- 
munities   where     they    laboured,    and     the 


l62        THE   ROMANCE   OF   PREACHING 

people  for  whose  souls  they  watched  as  those 
that  must  give  account.  Each  of  these 
preachers  dominated  the  life  of  a  common- 
wealth. Each  of  them  in  his  day  of  power 
reduced  all  other  figures  in  the  land  to  in- 
significance, and  ruled  the  life  of  the  people 
from  the  pulpit  as  from  a  throne.  The  three 
of  whom  1  propose  to  speak  are  Savonarola 
of  Florence,  John  Calvin  of  Geneva,  and 
John  Knox  of  Scotland. 

And  first,  of  the  martyr  of  Florence.  I 
have  litde  to  do  with  Savonarola's  wonderful 
life-story  save  as  it  concerns  the  man  as 
preacher.  But  it  may  be  said  that  three 
great  facts  determined  the  form  of  his 
ministry — the  shameless  corruption  in  the 
Church,  the  open  profligacy  and  sinful 
luxury  of  the  ruling  classes,  and  the  renais- 
sance of  art  and  learning.  Savonarola's 
sensitive  temperament  was  profoundly  af- 
fected by  all  these  signs  of  the  times.  It 
was  his  cross  to  live  and  bear  witness  in 
days  when  the  princes  of  the  Church  out- 
vied, in  greed  and  lust  and  passion,  the 
princes  of  the  State,     He  was  one  of  many 


THE   RULERS   OF   PEOPLES  1 63 

who  fled  to  the  cloister  as  to  a  sanctuary 
to  escape  the  contagion  of  the  plague  of 
immorality.  He  was  driven  across  the 
Apennines  to  Florence  by  the  scourge  of 
war  wielded  by  the  merciless  hand  of  an 
arrogant  and  ambitious  "Vicar  of  Christ," 
who  actually  died  of  grief  and  rage  because 
of  the  conclusion  of  peace. 

From  Sixtus  IV  to  the  dissolute  Inno- 
cent VIII  and  the  infamous  Alexander  VI, 
it  was  Savonarola's  melancholy  fate  to  live 
through  the  period  when  the  apostle's  lurid 
description  of  the  adversaries  of  the  true 
faith  was  most  perfectly  fulfilled — "world- 
rulers  of  this  darkness,  and  spiritual  hosts  of 
wickedness  in  heavenly  places."  Litde 
wonder  that  the  monasteries  were  filled  by 
those  who  were  driven  there  by  despair,  or 
that  Savonarola  was  one  of  them.  Neither 
did  the  new  culture  at  first  affect  the  pulpit 
for  good.  It  bred  affectation  of  learning. 
It  had  its  fruit  in  the  scholastic  temper  and 
speech.  It  enriched  the  artificial  orations  of 
windy  rhetoricians  with  obscure  and  some- 
times   even    obscene   illustrations   from    the 


1 64        THE   ROMANCE  OF  PREACHING 

classics.  The  pulpiteer  with  a  thin  veneer 
of  scholarship  became  the  plague  of  the 
Church ;  and  when  you  have  a  whole  gen- 
eration of  preachers  who  care  more  for 
prettinesses  of  composition  than  for  the  cure 
of  souls,  religion  ceases  to  be  a  spiritual 
force,  and  is  regarded  only  with  pity  and 
contempt.  Students  of  the  dark  age  through 
which  Savonarola  prophesied,  are  moved  to 
wonder  that  seemingly  there  were  no  real 
tears  in  the  soul  of  any  priest  in  the  land, 
save  in  Savonarola's  alone. 

The  realization  of  the  sin  and  shame  of 
Church  and  State  alike  affected  him  with 
horror  and  anguish.  But  it  is  worth  our 
while  to  remember,  that  the  one  man  who 
really  cared  for  the  well-being  of  Florence 
and  of  Italy,  was  the  man  there  was  least 
eagerness  to  hear.  Savonarola  had  the 
bitter  and  humiliating  experience  of  seeing 
his  congregation  diminish  almost  to  vanish- 
ing point,  and  to  hear  the  complaint  under 
which  many  a  thoughtful  earnest  preacher 
has  suffered,  that  he  did  not  cultivate  the 
necessary  arts   and    graces   that   can   alone 


THE   RULERS   OF  PEOPLES  1 65 

commend  him  to  a  congregation.  He  saw 
the  masters  of  a  histrionic  style  who  tickled 
the  ears  of  their  hearers  with  their  shallow 
artifices,  addressing  crowds  of  hearers  who 
were  well  pleased  with  an  entertainment  that 
made  no  demand  upon  intellect  or  conscience. 
But  he  who  sought  to  bring  the  light  of  Holy 
Writ  to  bear  on  the  burdens  and  miseries  of 
humanity,  to  plead  for  purity  and  freedom, 
and  to  reason  of  judgment  to  come  was 
advised  to  practice  more  graces  of  speech. 
To  Savonarola  it  was  as  if  a  land  was  being 
devastated  by  man-devouring  dragons,  while 
the  anointed  St.  Georges  rained  polished 
epigrams,  and  clever  jests  at  the  monsters, 
instead  of  girding  on  a  sword  of  stout  steel, 
and  making  at  them  in  the  name  of  God.  Not 
that  Savonarola  was  unaffected  by  the  new 
learning.  It  helped  him  to  see  to  the  heart  of 
the  Scriptures.  It  loosened  his  obstinate  at- 
tachment to  the  traditions  of  the  Church.  It 
compelled  him  to  face  many  problems  of 
thought  which  he  would  otherwise  have 
evaded.  If  he  never  reached  a  very  con- 
sistent position  as  a  theologian,  it  was  be- 


l66        THE   ROMANCE  OF   PREACHING 

cause  his  powers  were  mortgaged  to  other 
purposes ;  and  in  his  desperate  fight  for 
moral  and  social  righteousness  he  had  little 
leisure  to  examine  whither  his  intellectual 
independence  was  leading  him. 

But  one  thing  is  certain.  Savonarola's 
ultimate  triumph  as  a  preacher  is  the  tri- 
umph of  naturalism  in  the  pulpit.  He 
scorned  the  tricks  and  sophisms  of  those 
who  won  a  cheap  and  fleeting  popularity, 
but  who  exercised  no  lasting  influence.  He 
set  himself  to  reach  and  stimulate  the  with- 
ered, wizened  conscience  of  the  multitude ; 
and  to  do  it  he  relied  on  the  instrument 
of  plain,  searching,  passionate  speech.  To 
quote  his  own  words  which  are  worthy  of 
your  attention,  "  These  verbal  elegancies  and 
ornaments  will  have  to  give  way  to  sound 
doctrine  simply  preached."  Do  not  misun- 
derstand him.  The  idolatry  of  simplicity 
may  be  carried  too  far.  The  great  moving 
discourses  which  swept  all  Florence  subse- 
quently into  the  cathedral  to  sit  at  Savo- 
narola's feet,  were  surprisingly  simple  and 
direct  and  scriptural,  but  the  passion  of  the 


THE  RULERS  OF  PEOPLES      167 

preacher  expressed  itself  in  the  irresistible 
rush  of  his  flaming  sentences  which  no  soul 
could  face  and  remain  unscathed. 

Savonarola  is  an  easily  vulnerable  per- 
son to  the  armchair  critic.  His  philosophy- 
is  unconvincing,  his  visions  often  took  the 
place  of  argument,  his  ecclesiastical  position 
was  to  the  end  ambiguous.  The  censor  of 
the  pulpit  finds  many  of  his  most  powerful 
and  famous  sermons  turgid,  and  complains 
that  there  is  too  little  light  and  shade.  I  am 
not  attempting  an  apology  for  Savonarola ; 
but  I  may  be  allowed  to  point  out  that  the 
test  of  a  good  sermon  is  not  that  it  satisfies 
certain  canons  of  style,  but  that  it  achieves 
certain  moral  and  spiritual  ends ;  and  I  may 
also  be  allowed  to  doubt  whether  his  latter 
day  critics  would  have  done  better  than  he 
in  rousing  Florence  from  her  turpitude  and 
stagnancy,  and  recreating  the  ancient  civic 
spirit.  His  power  lay  in  the  realization  of 
the  magnitude  of  the  struggle,  and  that  only 
by  the  uttermost  devotion  could  Christ's  vic- 
tory be  won.  He  urged  every  believer  to 
seek  "that  Christ's  doctrine  might  be  a  living 


-\ 


h 


1 68        THE   ROMANCE  OF  PREACHING 

thing  in  him,"  and  that  he  might  "  desire  to 
suffer  His  martyrdom,  and  mystically  hang 
with  Him  on  the  same  cross."  If  ever  any 
man  knew  the  meaning  of  "resisting  unto 
blood,  striving  against  sin,"  it  was  Savo- 
narola. 

Judged  by  the  test  that  a  great  sermon  is 
to  make  its  hearers  ready  to  fight  and  die 
for  the  faith,  Savonarola  was  a  supreme 
]  preacher.  Moreover  he  is  an  illustration  of 
my  opening  remarks  in  that  he  was  a 
"timely"  preacher,  "a  Christian  opportunist" 
in  the  Pauline  sense.  His  was  an  adaptable 
message,  in  the  sense  that  he  was  not  so 
inflexible  in  his  views  as  not  to  modify  his 
position  under  the  stress  of  a  consciousness 
of  Divine  coercion.  This  is,  of  course,  most 
strikingly  exemplified  in  his  reluctant  descent 
into  the  arena  of  politics  ;  and  his  gradual 
perception,  against  all  his  prejudices,  that  a 
free  Florence  could  only  be  won,  and  a  Chris- 
tian Florence  could  only  be  created,  as  the 
authority  of  the  Word  was  acknowledged  in 
the  government  of  the  city  as  well  as  in  the 
administration  of  the  Church.     It  is  worth 


THE   RULERS   OF   PEOPLES  169 

your  while  to  notice  for  how  long  a  time 
Savonarola's  one  ideal  for  the  Church  was 
that  she  should  excel  in  charity.  It  was  re- 
luctantly forced  upon  him,  as  it  were,  that 
she  must  show  herself  the  appointed  guard- 
ian of  freedom  and  justice ;  and  that  to 
quote  his  words,  "  It  is  the  Lord's  will  that  ye 
should  renew  all  things,  that  ye  should  wipe 
away  the  past ;  so  that  nought  may  be  left 
of  the  old  evil  customs,  evil  laws,  evil  gov- 
ernment." It  was  then  that  he  cried  out  in 
St.  Mark's  that  he  would  not  enter  on  affairs  ' 
of  state  "  did  I  not  deem  it  necessary  for  the  ■ 
salvation  of  souls."  "  That  by  all  ineans  I 
may  save  some,"  as  Paul  had  expressed  it. 
He  had  come  to  see  that  any  mundane  ref- 
ormation needs  a  higher  inspiration  than 
motives  of  expediency.  He  challenged  the 
contemptuous  dictum  "  that  states  cannot  be 
governed  by  Paternosters "  ;  for  the  Lord's 
Prayer  is  a  fountain  of  all  wisdom,  social  and 
spiritual,  and  the  men  who  have  that  prayer 
in  their  hearts,  are  most  likely  to  reform  the 
commonwealth  to  good  purpose. 

With   his   spirit   newly-enkindled   for   the 


lyo        THE   ROMANCE   OF   PREACHING 

great  task,  and  his  horizon  of  service  wid- 
ened, he  laid  down,  and  enforced  it  out  of 
the  Christian  documents,  that  all  power  is 
derivative  from  the  people ;  to  use  his  own 
words,  "  that  no  man  may  receive  any  benefit 
save  by  the  will  of  the  whole  people,  who 
must  have  the  sole  right  of  creating  magis- 
trates and  enacting  laws."  It  was  the  new 
conviction  in  his  soul  that  Divine  sanction 
can  be  claimed  for  this  political  proposition, 
and  that  here  lay  the  final  safeguard  against 
arbitrary  power,  and  the  ultimate  guarantee 
of  good  citizenship,  that  changed  the  course 
of  Savonarola's  ministry,  and  clothed  him 
for  a  while  with  the  authority  of  social  as  well 
as  moral  leadership  in  Florence.  I  cannot 
take  you  through  the  details  of  what  is,  in 
the  main,  a  glorious  record  of  constitution- 
building,  the  abolition  of  unjust  and  arbitrary 
taxation,  the  levying  of  taxes  only  on  real 
property,  the  establishment  of  courts  of  ap- 
peal, and  above  all  the  creation  through  the 
new  order  of  government  of  a  citizen  unity, 
which,  but  for  the  revival  of  the  base  spirit  of 
faction,    would    have    saved    Florence,    and 


THE   RULERS   OF  PEOPLES  171 

might  have  saved  Italy,  from  many  a  dis- 
astrous chapter  of  history.  Let  any  one 
whose  artistic  soul  is  wounded  by  the  puri- 
tanical fanaticism  that  had  vent  in  "  the  burn- 
ing of  the  vanities,"  or  any  one  whose  calm 
modern  mind  shrinks  from  the  recognition  of 
weird  visions  as  inspired  leadership,  or  any 
one  who  reads  something  of  cowardice  into 
the  awful  decisions  of  the  last  fateful  months, 
recognize  if  they  can  the  astonishing  practical 
sagacity  of  Savonarola's  statesmanship,  and 
his  ultimate  devotion  to  his  ideals  even 
through  the  bitterness  of  the  stake  and  the 
cord,  and  the  unspeakable  moral  anguish  of 
being  betrayed  by  the  people  of  his  love. 

Let  them  remember,  as  I  prefer  to  do,  for 
final  memory,  the  triumphant  day  when  first 
the  children  of  Florence  were  led  from  the 
folly  and  indecency  of  the  Carnival  into  the 
great  Church  that  they  too  might  acknowl- 
edge and  magnify  the  Theocracy  which  he 
believed  was  established  as  the  government 
of  the  city.  "  Florence  !  Behold  !  "  he  cried 
to  the  vast  multitude,  as  he  lifted  up  the 
crucifix.     "  This  is  the  lord  of  the  universe. 


\ 


172        THE   ROMANCE   OF   PREACHING 

and  would  fain  be  thine.  Wilt  thou  have  him 
for  thy  King  ?  "  Thereupon  all  asserted  in 
/a  loud  voice,  and  many  with  tears,  crying, 
"  Long  live  Christ  our  King."  No  man  has 
ever  failed  in  the  Christian  ministry  who  has 
inspired  a  whole  people,  even  for  an  hour,  to 
aspire  to  be  subject  to  the  sovereignty  of 
Christ. 

From  Savonarola  to  Calvin  is  only  a  few 
years  as  we  count  time,  but  in  the  course  of 
a  single  generation  Luther  had  arisen,  and 
with  one  great  phrase — Justification  by  Faith 
— had  changed  the  politics  of  the  greater 
part  of  Europe.  Luther  is  a  fascinating  per- 
sonality and  belongs,  if  ever  man  did,  to  the 
romance  of  preaching.  One  may  cherish  un- 
limited admiration  for  his  war  against  a  soul- 
less and  corrupt  ecclesiasticism,  while  la- 
menting the  fact  that  in  the  terrible  period 
of  the  Peasants'  Revolt  he  did  not  see  his 
way  clearly,  and  apply  his  Gospel  principles 
with  equal  consistency  to  secure  freedom  and 
justice  for  those  from  whose  ranks  he  him- 
self had  sprung.  It  is  the  more  to  be  won- 
dered at  because  Martin  Luther  was  the  most 


THE   RULERS   OF   PEOPLES  1 73 

human  of  beings,  full  of  the  milk  of  human 
kindness,  devoted  to  wife  and  children,  over- 
flowing with  laughter  and  humour,  genial, 
quick-tempered,  shrewd  and  passionately  fond 
of  music.  On  many  sides  of  his  character  he 
was  far  more  attractive  and  humane  than  the 
preacher  of  Geneva  whose  intense  intellectual 
ministry  I  shall  invite  you  to  consider  now. 
John  Calvin  is  usually  spoken  of  as  the  typ- 
ical dogmatist ;  yet  it  was  he  who  was  re- 
sponsible for  the  trenchant  saying,  "  He  is  a 
fool  who  never  has  a  doubt."  Walter  Bagehot 
objected  to  Voltaire's  writings  because,  he 
said,  nothing  could  possibly  be  quite  so  clear 
as  Voltaire  makes  it.  The  man  who  does 
not  realize  the  mystery  of  life  and  the  uni- 
verse explains  nothing,  and  cannot  really  be 
an  intellectual  leader.  We  live  in  a  queer 
world,  but  logic  is  not  the  key  that  unlocks 
the  mystery  of  it.  Calvin  would  have  gov- 
erned the  world  of  the  spirit  by  rule  of  logic, 
and  the  world  of  affairs  by  rule  of  thumb. 

Neither  experiment  was  a  complete  suc- 
cess. That  he  did  such  extraordinary  things 
in  the  course  of  a  life  broken  by  ill-health  and 


174       THE  ROMANCE  OF  PREACHING 

environed  with  every  kind  of  danger  and 
trial,  is  due  to  the  fact  that  he  himself  was  so 
much  greater  than  his  system.  Let  it  be  re- 
membered that  he  completed  the  "  Insti- 
tutes "  when  he  was  twenty-four  or  twenty- 
five  years  of  age,  and  probably  began  the 
task  when  he  was  not  more  than  twenty-three. 
We  are  very  wise  at  twenty-three,  and  see 
things  much  more  clearly  and  definitely  then 
than  we  do  when  we  are  twice  the  age.  But 
I  am  one  of  Calvin's  warmest  admirers  who 
believe  with  Mark  Pattison  that  "his  great 
merit  lies  in  his  comparative  neglect  of 
dogma,"  though  I  confess  I  sometimes  gaze 
at  the  fifty-three  octavo  volumes  of  the  Edin- 
burgh edition  of  his  collected  theological 
works  and  vaguely  wonder,  if  these  represent 
a  "  comparative  neglect  of  dogma,"  what 
would  have  happened  to  us  if  he  had  not 
neglected  it.  Let  me,  however,  strike  the 
key-note  of  Calvin's  life  and  ministry  by 
quoting  Pattison's  pregnant  words :  "  Cal- 
vin seized  the  idea  of  reformation  as  a  real 
renovation  of  character."  While  the  German 
reformers  were  scholastically  engaged  in  re- 


THE  RULERS  OF  PEOPLES  1 75 

modelling  abstract  metaphysical  statements, 
Calvin  had  embraced  the  lofty  idea  of  the 
Church  of  Christ  as  a  society  of  regenerate 
men.  The  moral  purification  of  humanity  asJ 
the  original  idea  of  Christianity  is  the  guid-  N 
ing  idea  of  his  system.  The  Communion  of 
Saints  is  held  together  by  a  moral,  not  by  a 
metaphysical,  still  less  by  a  sacramental 
bond  1  That  statement,  I  think,  cannot  be 
overthrown  ;  and  it  explains  why  John  Calvin 
appears  in  Europe  as  a  new  apostle  with  a 
new  message. 

To  pass  from  Savonarola  to  Calvin  is  to 
pass  from  a  volcano  sending  forth  torrents  of 
molten  lava  to  a  well-contained  and  well- 
controlled  furnace,  whose  fires  are  more  effect- 
ive because  they  are  more  disciplined.  The 
volcanic  eruptions  on  the  other  hand  are  far 
more  picturesque,  sensational  and  awe-in- 
spiring. Calvin  knew  none  of  the  paroxysms 
of  the  monk  of  Florence  ;  and  in  saying  that 
I  must  not  be  understood  to  mean  that  the 
one  type  of  ministry  discredits  the  other  ;  but 
only  that  once  again  inspiration  is  following 
a  law  of  adaptation.     From   Savonarola   to 


176        THE  ROMANCE  OF  PREACHING 

Calvin  is  from  rhetoric  to  logic  ;  and  nobody- 
can  read  with  intelligence  this  epoch  of 
world  history  without  realizing  that  Prot- 
estantism needed  at  the  moment  not  rhet- 
oric but  reason.  Moreover  Protestantism 
had  yet  to  show  the  world  that  it  stood,  not 
only  for  a  more  rational  theology,  and  a 
simpler  worship,  but  for  a  purer  ethics  and  a 
sounder  morality. 

John  Calvin  went  to  Geneva  to  make 
a  great  experiment.  He  beheved  that  a 
preacher  of  the  Evangel  might  create  and 
inspire  a  church,  which  should  in  turn  become 
the  instrument  of  freedom  and  righteousness 
in  the  civic  life  of  the  city.  He  had  it  in 
view  throughout,  to  make  Geneva  central  to 
the  whole  Protestant  movement;  and  its 
citizenship  so  compact,  united  and  resolved 
that  the  city  would  stand  secure  against  all 
enemies.  I  would  that  every  preacher  set- 
ting out  upon  his  life-work  could  have  within 
him  John  Calvin's  sense  of  destiny.  Every- 
body knows  how  he  resisted  the  call  to 
Geneva,  believing  that  his  own  work  was  in 
the  study  rather  than  in  the  market-place, 


THE  RULERS  OF  PEOPLES  l^^ 

and  how  Farel  stood  over  him  and  with 
prophetic  vehemence  denounced  a  curse  upon 
his  studies  if  he  came  not  to  the  help  of  the 
Lord  in  Geneva.  Calvin  yielded  to  a  resist- 
less conviction  of  destiny  and  always  felt  that 
the  Almighty  had  shut  him  into  Geneva  and 
locked  the  gates  behind  him.  Even  when  at 
first  the  Genevans,  alarmed  at  his  moral 
strictness,  drove  him  forth  from  their  midst, 
with  violence  of  hatred  which  shook  Calvin's 
sensitive  soul  to  its  centre,  the  Will  and  the 
Sovereignty  which  were  to  become  the  foun- 
dation of  his  creed  appointed  his  return,  and 
elected  him  to  be  the  mouthpiece  of  God  to  the 
city  where,  in  the  main,  he  ruled  and  taught 
until  his  death  at  the  age  of  fifty-four,  and 
lies  buried  in  a  grave  which  by  his  own  wish 
is  marked  by  no  stone,  and  is  as  unknown 
to-day  as  the  grave  of  Moses  upon  Nebo. 

I  am  often  compelled  to  contrast  the  sense 
of  destiny,  or  what  we  speak  of  as  our  "  call," 
as  it  affected  these  fathers  of  ours  and  as  it 
affects  ourselves.  We  speak  almost  invari- 
ably of  a  call  to  a  church  ;  they  spoke  of  a 
call  to  a  city.     We  are  told  all  the  circum- 


1 78        THE   ROMANCE   OF  PREACHING 

Stances  that  make  a  particular  church  a 
/;|  desirable  sphere  of  settlement ;  its  income,  its 
||  position,  its  social  amenities,  its  agreeable 
I  office-bearers  and  pewholders.  Our  re- 
sponsibilty  is  to  a  special  flock,  whose  sheep 
are  known  by  name,  and  duly  enrolled  as 
such  on  the  church  books.  But  the  destiny 
of  our  forefathers  was  to  the  population  of  a 
whole  community.  Their  message  was  for  a 
city.  Their  responsibility  was  for  the  souls  of 
all  people  within  the  city  gates,  or  the  borders 
of  the  township.  They  were  conscious  of 
a  pastoral  relation  between  themselves  and 
the  most  obscure  citizen  of  the  poorest  court 
in  the  city.  It  Was  this  fact  that  interested 
them  so  keenly  in  the  city  problems — how 
their  community,  litde  or  large,  was  governed  ; 
the  conditions  of  life  that  prevailed ;  the 
temptations  to  vice,  luxury  and  crime  that 
lowered  the  standard  of  morals.  They,  the 
preachers,  were  to  take  the  field  for  public 
righteousness  as  well  as  for  religious  truth. 
1  I  ask  you  to  reflect  what  must  be  the  effect 
on  preaching  of  this  wider  and  deeper  sense 
of  responsibility  to  one's  fellows.     I  would 


THE  RULERS  OF  PEOPLES  1 79 


give  anything  in  my  power  to  get  it  back 
again  for  the  modern  ministry.  A  sense  ofj 
responsibility  to  a  church  may  be  a  ver 
noble  feeling  ;  but  a  sense  of  destiny  to  a  city 
a  town  or  a  village  is  a  far  greater  thing. 
Remember  we  are  not  Christ's  ministers  be- 
cause we  are  called  by  a  church  ;  we  are 
ministers  of  the  people  because  we  are  called 
by  Christ.  It  is  the  call  of  God  we  need  to 
be  conscious  of  in  our  hearts  and  in  our  ears. 
A  minister  in  England  or  in  America  will  talk 
about  his  call  to  the  First  Congregational 
Church,  or  to  such  and  such  a  meeting- 
house ;  while  the  missionary  more  wisely  in- 
spired, or  more  greatly  daring,  will  speak 
about  his  call  to  China  or  to  Africa.  It  is  the 
greatest  thing  in  life  when  you  can  hear  not 
only  Christian  voices  calling  you,  but  voices  of 
those  whose  souls  are  dark  or  dead  within  them 
but  who  need  all  the  more  the  message  and 
the  ministry  that  by  God's  grace  you  are  able 
to  give.  John  Calvin  will  achieve  his  great- 
est modern  triumph,  when  he  thus  deepens 
and  greatens  the  preacher's  sense  of  destiny. 
Students  of  Calvin's  sermons  and  writings 


I  So        THE   ROMANCE  OF   PREACHING 

will  see  for  themselves  how  admirably  the 
instrument  he  employed  was  adapted  to  the 
kind  of  constructive  work  he  set  out  to  do. 
Members  of  congregations  will  note  with  re- 
lief that  he  evidently  believed  in  short  ser- 
mons ;  indeed  he  had  no  patience,  as  he  said, 
with  a  prolix  style.  Men  have  called  him  by 
almost  every  depreciatory  epithet,  but,  those 
fifty-three  octavo  volumes  notwithstanding, 
nobody  will  truthfully  call  him  "  wordy." 
Seldom  will  you  read  anywhere,  discourses 
with  less  of  illustration  or  ornamentation 
which  are  yet  more  penetrating  and  pertinent. 
There  are  no  chasings  on  the  blade  of  his 
sword.  It  is  plain,  keen  steel,  and  with  what 
an  edge  I  Calvin's  style  of  address  was,  we  are 
told,  somewhat  slow  and  measured.  For  one 
thing  he  was  a  martyr  to  asthma,  and  often 
breathless  in  the  pulpit  and  before  the  council. 
It  can  be  said  of  him,  as  it  can  be  said  of 
very  few,  that  he  spoke  literature.  Strong, 
stately,  lucid,  nervous,  his  sentences  carry 
you  forward  from  point  to  point  of  his  argu- 
ment Little  wonder  that  the  French  school 
books  of  to-day  should  point  to  Calvin  as  one 


THE   RULERS   OF   PEOPLES  l8l 

of  the  supreme  masters  and  even  makers  of  the 
French  language,  and  should  describe  his 
style  as  an  "  admirable  instrument  of  discourse 
and  of  affairs." 

It  is  remarkable  that  one  who  was  so 
scholarly  in  all  his  tastes  should  be  the  de- 
termined champion  of  extempore  preaching. 
Indeed  he  went  so  far  as  to  declare  that  the 
power  of  God  could  only  pour  itself  forth  in 
extempore  speech.  His  criticism  of  the 
Anglican  Church,  in  his  letter  to  Somerset, 
was,  "  There  is  too  little  of  living  preaching  in 
your  kingdom.  .  .  .  You  fear  that  levity 
and  foolish  imaginations  might  be  the  conse- 
quence of  the  introduction  of  a  new  system. 
But  all  this  must  yield  to  the  command  of 
Christ  which  orders  the  preaching  of  the 
Gospel."  He  never  ceased  to  insist  that  out 
of  the  fullness  of  the  heart  the  mouth  must 
speak  ;  and  in  one  fine  passage,  with  which 
I  may  perhaps  conclude  this  part  of  my  lec- 
ture, he  uses  these  memorable  words,  "  It  is 
not  said  without  reason  that  Jesus  Christ 
'  shall  smite  the  earth  with  the  rod  of  His 
mouth,  and  slay  the  wicked  with  the  breath 


l82        THE   ROMANCE   OF   PREACHING 

of  His  lips.'  This  is  the  means  by  which  the 
Lord  will  bind  and  destroy  all  His  enemies, 
and  hence  the  Gospel  is  called  the  Kingdom 
of  God.  Although  the  edicts  and  laws  there- 
fore of  princes  are  good  auxiliaries  for  the 
support  of  Christianity,  God  will  make  His 
dominion  known  by  the  spiritual  sword  of 
His  Word,  proclaimed  by  His  ministers  and 
preachers."  Whatever  their  faults  may  have 
been  these  Reformation  fathers  believed  ab- 
solutely in  the  power  of  the  preached  word. 

Before  I  say  a  word  of  summary,  let  me 
detain  you  very  briefly  before  the  portrait  of 
John  Knox,  who  united  to  the  statesmanship 
of  Calvin  the  fiery  eloquence  of  Savonarola. 
Perhaps  I  cannot  introduce  the  man  and  his 
mission  better  than  in  the  words  of  the  great- 
est of  Scottish  historians.  "  The  whole  fab- 
ric," writes  Robertson,  "  which  ignorance  and 
superstition  had  erected  in  times  of  darkness 
began  to  totter  ;  and  nothing  was  wanting  to 
complete  its  ruin  but  a  daring  and  active 
leader  to  direct  the  attack.  Such  was  the 
famous  John  Knox,  who  with  better  qualifi- 
cations of  learning,  and  more  extensive  views 


THE   RULERS   OF  PEOPLES  183 

than  any  of  his  predecessors  in  Scotland, 
possessed  a  natural  intrepidity  of  mind  which 
set  him  above  fear."  I  agree  with  every 
word  of  that  last  sentence  unless  it  be  the 
word  "  natural."  Knox  insists  that  he  was 
by  nature  a  coward ;  and  personally  I  have 
no  difficulty  in  believing  that  "  supernatural 
intrepidity "  would  be  the  more  truthful 
phrase.  It  will  interest  you  to  observe  that 
he  too  was  driven  into  his  eventful  work 
against  his  own  will  and  inclination.  He, 
like  Calvin,  was  an  example  of  a  man  worsted 
in  the  fight  against  the  Divine  decree ; 
wrestling  against  the  good  angel  of  his  des- 
tiny and  being  prevailed  over  to  the  endless 
advantage  of  all  subsequent  generations. 

After  the  martyrdom  of  the  saintly  Wish- 
art,  the  Protestants  in  St.  Andrews  were  re- 
solved that  Knox  should  take  up  the  office  of 
preacher.  He  refused  again  and  again. 
Then  John  Rough,  who  afterwards  perished 
at  the  stake  at  Smithfield,  dealt  as  faithfully 
with  Knox  as  Farel  had  done  with  Calvin, 
charging  him  "  to  refuse  not  this  holy  voca- 
tion    ...     as   you   look   to  avoid  God's 


1 84        THE   ROMANCE  OF   PREACHING 

heavy  displeasure."  Knox  went  out  from  the 
presence  of  John  Rough  to  fight  the  battle 
out  with  his  own  soul,  and  "  his  countenance 
did  sufficiently  declare  the  grief  and  trouble  of 
his  heart."  Finally  he  bowed  to  the  declared 
Will,  as  a  mighty  tree  bends  before  a  mightier 
storm.  Four  months  later  the  preacher  of  St. 
Andrews,  the  hope  of  the  Reform  move- 
ment in  Scotland,  was  chained  to  a  French 
galley,  and  for  nineteen  weary  and  desper- 
ate months  tasted  the  French  lash,  labouring 
at  the  oar  on  the  stormy  north  seas.  But  he 
had  received  his  "  call  "  ;  he  had  realized  his 
"  election,"  and  no  mutations  of  fortune 
could  ever  affect  his  sense  of  predestination 
to  the  task  of  delivering  Scotland  from  super- 
stition. It  is  just  as  well  to  meditate  while 
we  can,  on  the  strength  and  stability  which 
that  old  Calvinistic  conception  of  God's  sov- 
ereign purpose  gave  to  the  preachers  who 
saw  their  own  destiny  in  the  light  of  it. 

Sometimes,  when  I  realize  what  trifling  in- 
firmities we  allow  to  interrupt  our  appointed 
work  for  the  Master,  I  reflect  on  such  men  as 
Knox  with  wholesome   shame.     With  what 


THE   RULERS   OF  PEOPLES  1 85 

ardour  and  zeal  he  wore  himself  out  in  the 
arduous  campaign  1  Listen  to  this,  of  a  cer- 
tain James  Melville,  who  had  the  eye  and  ear 
of  a  born  reporter.  "  Of  all  the  benefits  I  had 
that  year  [1571]  was  the  coming  of  that  most 
notable  prophet  and  apostle  of  our  nation. 
Mister  John  Knox,  to  St.  Andrews.  I  heard 
him  teach  there  the  prophecies  of  Daniel,  that 
summer  and  winter  following.  I  had  my  pen 
and  little  book  and  took  away  sic  things  as  I 
could  comprehend.  In  the  opening  of  his 
text  he  was  moderate  the  space  of  half  an 
hour ;  but  when  he  entered  to  application  he 
made  me  so  to  grue  and  tremble  that  I  could 
not  hold  the  pen  to  write."  Mr.  Melville  goes 
on  to  tell  us  that  at  the  time  Knox  was  so  ill  and 
weak  that  he  had  to  be  assisted  to  the  church 
and  actually  lifted  into  the  pulpit,  "  where  he 
behoved  to  lean  at  his  first  entrie,"  "  but  ere 
he  was  done  with  his  sermon  he  was  so  active 
and  vigorous  that  he  was  like  to  ding  [beat] 
the  pulpit  into  blads  [pieces],  and  fly  out  of 
it."  Such  was  the  victory  of  the  spirit  over  the 
flesh.  If  only  young  preachers  knew  to-day 
the  power  of  a  "  mighty  application  "  of  their 


1 86        THE   ROMANCE  OF   PREACHING 

sermons,  and  the  supreme  art  of  training  all 
their  guns  upon  actual  temptations  and  tend- 
encies, upon  actual  sins  and  selfishnesses  of 
their  hearers,  we  should  not  have  as  much 
cause  as  we  have,  to  lament  the  decline  of 
pulpit  influence  and  authority. 

I  have  no  time  to  dwell  on  the  prowess  of 
this  heroic  soul  in  holding  out  for  God  against 
a  crafty  hierarchy,  a  turbulent  nobility,  and 
the  most  dangerous  Royalty  in  the  world. 
The  destiny  of  Scotland  was  in  the  scales ; 
and  under  God,  its  freedom  depended  upon 
the  fact  that  John  Knox  was  no  sentimental 
and  effeminate  champion  of  the  new  doc- 
trine. Preachers  have  many  temptations  to  be 
unfaithful  to  the  truth  ;  but  John  Knox  had 
that  to  resist  which  had  sapped  the  integrity, 
and  compromised  the  virtue  of  some  whom 
Scotland  esteemed  most  loyal  to  the  Evangel- 
ical faith.  You  remember  Swinburne's  lines 
on  Mary  Queen  of  Scots : 

"  O  diamond  heart,  unflawed  and  clear, 
The  whole  world's  gleaming  jewel, 
Was  ever  heart  so  deadly  dear, 
So  cruel  !  " 


THE   RULERS   OF  PEOPLES  187 

Mary  was  the  cleverest,  as  well  as  the  most 
beautiful  of  Rome's  apologists.  To  the  task 
of  outmanoeuvring  and  routing  Knox  and  his 
army  of  peasant  Protestants,  she  dedicated  all 
her  wit  and  all  her  graces.  She  flattered,  she 
threatened,  she  cajoled  ;  she  tried  laughter, 
she  tried  tears.  She  could  not  believe  that 
one  man's  conscience — and  he  of  simple 
stock — could  be  proof  against  the  wiles  and 
the  charms  of  the  fairest  queen  in  Christen- 
dom. But  the  one  man  she  could  not  with 
all  her  craft  hoodwink  or  bamboozle,  was  the 
Edinburgh  preacher  who  never  mistook  her 
character,  or  was  deceived  by  her  artifice. 
Well  might  Mary  exclaim  in  that  famous  in- 
terview, "  I  perceive  that  my  subjects  shall 
obey  you  and  not  me."  History  has  it  on 
record,  that  as  John  Knox  passed  out  from  the 
royal  presence,  the  whisper  went  round,  "He 
is  not  afraid,"  whereupon  he  replied,  "  with  a 
reasonably  merry  countenance,"  "  Wherefore 
should  the  pleasing  face  of  a  gentlewoman  af- 
fray me  ?  I  have  looked  upon  the  faces  of 
many  angry  men  and  yet  have  not  been  af- 
frayed  beyond  measure." 


1 88        THE  ROMANCE  OF  PREACHING 

It  is  certain  that  the  Christian  minister  who 
would  be  faithful  to  his  trust,  must  yield 
neither  to  stern  looks  nor  to  soft  speeches. 
Most  of  us  can  muster  enough  manhood,  when 
we  are  put  to  it,  to  stand  up  against  unworthy- 
frowns.  We  have  not  always  the  courage 
that  is  proof  against  the  seducing  smiles  of 
fashion,  or  wealth,  or  rank.  Especially,  we 
have  not  the  insight  of  Knox,  to  whom  ex- 
ternal position  was  nothing,  and  the  only 
reality  that  of  the  mind  and  soul.  Good 
women  are  the  most  precious  of  all  Heaven's 
gifts  to  the  Church.  We  may  v/ell  thank 
God  for  all  there  are,  who  devote  the  unique 
genius  of  their  womanliness  to  the  interests  of 
faith  and  virtue.  But  there  is  need  of  just 
such  a  story  as  the  one  Scotland  cherishes,  to 
teach  us  all,  betimes,  that  everything  is  not 
necessarily  angelic  that  looks  like  it ;  and  that 
the  most  difficult,  delicate  and  dangerous  of 
all  controversies  is,  when  Truth  finds  itself 
in  opposition  to  Error,  Superstition  and 
Vice  arrayed  in  the  most  attractive  and 
alluring  guise,  and  when  the  whisper  of 
siren    voices    may    seduce    even    the    best- 


THE   RULERS   OF  PEOPLES  1 89 

intentioned  voyager,  from  the  integrity  of  his 
course. 

I  have  put  these  three  preaching  ministries 
together,  because  they  are  supreme  examples 
of  the  power  which  the  man  of  the  Gospel 
can  exercise  in  shaping  the  civic  and  na- 
tional life  of  free  peoples.  They  were  all 
preachers  of  a  puritan  spirit.  It  is  probable 
they  made  mistakes,  and  ever  since  have 
been  the  objects  of  the  slighting  criticisms 
of  those,  who  have  made  few  mistakes  be- 
cause they  have  attempted  few  enterprises. 
What  the  world  owes  to  the  example  of 
Savonarola,  to  the  constructive  thinking  of 
Calvin,  and  to  the  statesmanship  of  Knox, 
can  never  be  told.  Thanks  to  them,  and  to 
others  whom  I  cannot  stay  to  commemorate, 
we  have  come  to  hold  that  the  ideal  State  is 
as  much  a  fruit  of  the  Gospel  as  the  ideal 
Church.  Any  errors  they  may  have  com- 
mitted, are  far  more  than  compensated  for, 
by  the  priceless  witness  which  they  bore  to 
the  sovereignty  of  Christ  over  all  mundane 
affairs.  Of  course  they  were  buffeted  and 
bruised,  as  all  must  be  who  descend  into  the 


I90        THE   ROMANCE   OF   PREACHING 

arena.  Of  course  they  tasted  to  the  full  the 
reproaches,  calumnies,  and  cruelties  of  those 
who  repudiate  the  authority  of  the  Christian 
preacher,  save  in  matters  of  abstract  faith 
alone.  But  I  do  not  imagine  that  if  they 
had  their  lives  to  live  over  again,  and  knew 
quite  well  the  sufferings  and  disappoint- 
ments that  awaited  them,  they  would  choose 
differently.  For  there  is,  as  Carlyle  said,  no 
victory  but  by  battle.  There  is  no  crown 
but  by  the  cross.  There  is  no  triumph  for 
the  preacher  save  as  he  pledges  himself  to 
the  kingdom  of  God,  and  makes  himself  the 
willing  instrument  of  that  resisdess  Will  which 
shall  yet,  in  obedience  to  our  Master's  prayer, 
be  done  on  earth  as  it  is  done  in  heaven. 


LECTURE  VI 

THE  FOUNDERS  OF  FREEDOM : 
JOHN  ROBINSON  AND  THE  PIL- 
GRIM FATHERS 


LECTURE  VI 

THE  FOUNDERS  OF  FREEDOM  : 

JOHN  ROBINSON  AND  THE 

PILGRIM  FATHERS 

THE   Gospel   is   more   than   a   great 
faith ;  it  is  a  great  adventure.     Its 
news   is   so   good   that   it  must  be 
carried  everywhere  at  all  hazards.     The  most 
thrilling  pages  in  Christian  history  describe 
the  enterprise  of  the  Evangel. 

When  a  leading  English  Review,  that  has  a 
reputation  for  cynicism,  some  time  ago  de- 
scribed the  missionary  movement,  its  cynicism 
gave  way  to  genuine  enthusiasm.  •'  They 
have  kept  alive  at  the  heart  of  a  selfish  and 
materialized  culture,"  it  declared  of  our  mis- 
sionaries, "a  genuine  heroic  tradition"  ;  and 
went  on  to  say  that  there  were  few  families 
of  note  in  England  that  had  not  made  some 
contribution  to  the  army  of  missionary  mar- 
tyrs, and  that  "  all  the  ends  of  the  earth  are 
hallowed  by  their  graves."  No  man  can 
193 


194       THE  ROMANCE  OF  PREACHING 

read  such  records  without  emotion  and 
pride.  There  is  no  history  to  compare  with 
it,  nor  ever  can  be.  It  is  something  to 
realize  in  these  days  that  unselfishness  can 
devise  and  achieve  greater  things  than  self- 
ishness ever  can.  We  all  know  that  science 
and  commerce  have  inspired  expeditions 
which  have  filled  the  world  with  admiration ; 
but  the  simple  truth  is,  that  the  adventures 
inspired  by  the  disinterestedness  of  Christian 
evangelists,  have  thrown  all  other  enterprises 
into  the  shade. 

There  have  been  many  types  of  missionary 
preachers  and  missionary  adventures.  Much 
that  is  best  in  America  to-day,  derives  from  a 
pilgrim  race.  In  the  words  of  Mr.  Lowell, 
they  crossed  the  Atlantic  "  to  plant  their  idea 
in  virgin  soil."  They  may  not  have  looked 
romantic.  Shovel  hats  and  long  black 
cloaks  do  not  compare  in  picturesqueness 
with  the  embroidered  raiment  of  the  cavalier 
heroes  of  Vandyck.  Yet  these  men  and 
women,  so  prim  and  demure  of  outward 
aspect,  set  forth  on  the  most  astonishing 
of   adventures,    reading   their   destiny  west- 


THE  FOUNDERS  OF  FREEDOM  1 95 

ward  in  the  heaven  of  their  ideals,  and  by 
the  good  hand  of  God  prospering  them,  sow- 
ing the  world  with  free  commonwealths.  A 
clever  modern  novelist  has  invented  for  us 
the  title,  "  The  Beloved  Vagabond."  It 
might  have  stood  for  a  description  of  the 
Mayflower.  You  may  read  on  a  tomb  in 
that  spellbound  burial-place  at  Plymouth, 
part  of  an  address  delivered  by  a  preacher 
whose  body  rests  beneath.  He  describes  his 
associates  as  "  my  beloved  adventurers." 
That  great  writer,  Professor  Seeley,  says, 
"  Religion  alone  can  turn  emigration  into 
exodus."  Who  shall  define  or  describe  the 
mystic  determining  impulse  that  drove  the 
Pilgrims  into  the  wild,  to  make  a  home  for 
faith  and  freedom  ?  Had  they  any  pre- 
science of  the  greatness  of  the  goal  ?  Did 
they,  too,  see  an  Abrahamic  vision  of  a  seed 
as  the  stars  innumerable,  for  those  who  would 
go  forth  not  knowing  whither,  but  content 
to  follow  the  gleam  ?  Did  they  say,  when 
the  winds  of  heaven  filled  their  sails  and 
bare  them  far  from  friends  and  fatherland, 
"  the  spirit  driveth  us  into  the  wilderness  "  ? 


196        THE  ROMANCE  OF  PREACHING 

Were  they  all  equally  clear  that  the  Will  of 
God  was  with  them,  and  that  in  the  Book  of 
Destiny  their  names  were  written  as  the 
humble  pioneers  of  a  new  world  and  a  new 
order?  Were  all  hearts  westward  and  for- 
ward, and  all  minds  constant  in  their  re- 
solve ?  Did  none  nourish  a  treacherous 
appetite  for  the  flesh-pots  of  Europe,  murmur 
at  the  discouragements  of  the  journey, 

"  Nor  cast  one  longing  lingering  look  behind  ?  " 

How  gladly  would  we  know  more  than  we 
do,  or  ever  can,  of  the  details  of  that  golden 
romance,  which  surely,  outside  the  pages  of 
the  New  Testament,  is  the  greatest  story  in 
the  world  1 

Savonarola  ruled  Florence,  Calvin  ruled 
Geneva,  John  Knox  ruled  the  realm  of  Scot- 
land. Each  in  measure  asserted  the  author- 
ity of  Christ  over  a  turbulent  and  sometimes 
rebellious  population.  Their  difficulty  was 
that  they  were  compelled  to  put  new  wine 
into  old  bottles,  until  new  bottles  could  be 
wrought  and  shaped  for  the  new  wine.  The 
Pilgrim  Fathers  would  have  a  new  bottle  for 


THE  FOUNDERS  OF  FREEDOM    197 

their  new  wine.  They  demanded  a  free  com- 
monwealth suited  to  their  free  ideals  of  wor- 
ship, and  of  citizenship.  They  could  not  be 
content  to  graft  their  new  branch  on  the  old 
decayed  stock,  where  it  must  be  overshad- 
owed by  all  the  other  branches  that  bare 
fruit  of  so  doubtful  a  flavour.  For  the  most 
part  they  were  business  people  who  found 
Leyden  a  tolerable  town  to  thrive  in.  But 
their  religion  made  them  restless.  The  Prom- 
ised Land  was  in  their  hearts.  The  more 
John  Robinson  preached  to  them  of  the 
primitive  church,  and  the  destiny  of  the 
kingdom,  the  less  they  were  satisfied  with 
the  compromise-society  which  alone  was 
possible  to  them  where  they  were.  We  may 
perhaps  be  thankful  that  the  result  of  faithful 
and  real  preaching  is  not  always,  as  in  the 
case  of  John  Robinson,  that  the  congregation 
arise  and  flee.  But  I  confess  I  always  sus- 
pect my  own  preaching  of  weakness  if  it 
does  not  make  many  young  people  uncom- 
fortable, and  compel  them  to  become  mis- 
sionaries of  the  ideal,  even  at  some  consider- 
able sacrifice.    "  Will  you  be  content,"  argued 


198        THE   ROMANCE  OF   PREACHING 

John  Robinson  in  effect,  "  to  go  down  to  your 
graves  with  your  witness  undelivered,  and 
your  bravest  hopes  unattempted  ?  Or  will 
you  risk  something,  nay  everything,  to  trans- 
late your  theories  of  Christian  freedom  into 
a  veritable  free  society  ?  "  The  problem  of 
Savonarola,  Calvin,  Knox,  was  whether  the 
preached  word  was  powerful  enough  to 
transform  and  convert  an  old  order.  The 
problem  of  John  Robinson  and  the  Pilgrims, 
was  whether  the  preached  word  was  power- 
ful enough  to  create  and  establish  a  new  one. 
Before  I  come  to  a  somewhat  closer  study 
of  the  man  and  his  ideals  who  inspired  one 
of  the  world's  most  momentous  enterprises 
by  his  preaching,  I  shall  ask  you  to  spare  a 
thought  for  that  revival  of  preaching  which 
marked  the  heroic  age,  in  which  the  mind  of 
England  was  turned  permanently  Protestant. 
I  say  the  mhid  of  England,  for  no  serious 
student  believes  that  we  were  made  Protes- 
tant by  the  domestic  vagaries  of  Henry  VIII. 
We  were  made  Protestant  by  an  open  Bible, 
and  its  prophets.  One  lesson  had  been 
taught  by  the  ballads  of  Chaucer,  and  the 


THE  FOUNDERS  OF  FREEDOM    199 

visions  of  Piers  Plowman,  and  was  reenforced 
afterwards  by  the  tracts  of  Martin  Marprelate, 
that  to  ivin  the  ear  of  the  people  you  viust  talk 
their  language.  To  popularize  the  Reforma- 
tion and  its  new  religious  ideals,  it  was  neces- 
sary that  preachers  should  arise  who  thought 
in  the  vernacular,  and  who  seasoned  their 
speech  with  the  salt  of  such  homely  words 
and  phrases,  as  made  Tyndale's  Bible  under- 
standed  not  only  by  the  college-bred,  but  by 
the  smith  at  the  anvil,  and  the  labourer  be- 
hind the  plough. 

When  Hugh  Latimer  began  to  teach  the 
new  doctrine  from  St.  Paul's  Cross,  every 
London  apprentice  knew  and  re-hashed  his 
message.  After  all,  is  not  this  one  of  the 
signs  of  a  new  Pentecost,  "  We  did  hear  tell 
in  our  own  tongtie  the  wonderful  works  of 
God  "  ?  There  is  a  saying  of  Jesus  that  we 
shall  all  do  well  to  lay  to  heart :  "  What  I 
tell  you  in  secret,  that  publish  ye  on  the 
housetop."  Christianity  is  every  man's  re- 
ligion ;  and  therefore  can  be  translated  with- 
out loss  into  the  language  of  the  street.  It 
is  a  religion  for  the  open  air.     It  is  a  religion 


200        THE   ROMANCE  OF  PREACHING 

that  does  not  suffer  by  being  brought  home 
to  the  conscience  and  reason  of  simple  folk. 
It  is  susceptible  of  learned  philosophical 
statement,  I  doubt  not,  satisfying  to  the 
greatest  and  profoundest  thinkers,  but  John 
Ruskin  once  said,  with  the  touch  of  exaggera- 
tion characteristic  of  him,  "  What  a  little  child 
cannot  understand  of  Christianity,  nobody 
else  need  try  to."  The  essential  Protestant 
faith  captured  the  ear  and  the  heart  of  six- 
teenth-century London,  through  the  pithy 
pregnant  Saxon  speech  of  Latimer,  with  his 
command  of  laughter  and  tears. 

He  presented  the  citizen  in  the  street  with 
a  plain  man's  religion.  He  spoke  it  as 
simply,  I  say  it  with  reverence,  as  the  Saviour 
spoke  to  the  peasants  in  the  fields  of  Judea, 
or  the  fishermen  by  the  Galilean  lakes.  He 
did  not  so  much  appeal  to  the  theologically- 
trained  mind  ;  and  he  certainly  did  not  ap- 
peal to  any  sense  of  ecclesiastical  authority. 
He  appealed  to  common  sense ;  he  appealed 
to  the  instincts  of  the  multitude.  He  ap- 
pealed to  their  love  of  justice  and  of  hu- 
manity.    There   never   was  a  more  human 


THE  FOUNDERS  OF  FREEDOM  20I 

being  than  Hugh  Latimer.  The  people  well 
know  the  men  who  love  them,  believe  in 
them,  and  understand  them.  The  sheep 
hear  the  voice  of  the  true  shepherd.  Lon- 
don has  always  been  a  city  with  much  that 
is  artificial  and  materialistic  in  its  complicated 
cosmopolitan  life ;  and  no  one  ever  held  the 
key  of  its  affections  who  was  not  a  true  man. 
Latimer's  preaching  is  oratory  stripped  of  all 
that  is  meretricious,  and  oratory  that  is 
not  sterilized  by  conventionality.  No  timid, 
stilted  pulpiteer,  who  has  never  learned  that 
grace  is  more  than  grammar,  and  that  to 
win  your  hearers,  you  may  break  every  pulpit 
convention  that  was  ever  designed  by  a  sleek 
respectability  to  keep  our  volcanic  Gospel 
within  the  bonds  of  decency  and  order,  will 
ever  capture  the  soul  of  a  great  city,  or 
speak  with  a  voice  that  will  ring  in  the 
hearts  of  a  free  people.  And  if  Latimer 
knew  the  secret,  another  knew  it  who  is 
worthy  to  be  named  with  him — that  passion- 
ate pilgrim  of  the  Puritanism  which  was  only 
Latimer's  Protestantism  become  logical  and 
thorough — I  mean  John  Penry.    They  burned 


202        THE   ROMANCE  OF   PREACHING 

Latimer  at  Oxford,  and  hanged  Penry  on  a 
gibbet  in  the  Old  Kent  Road;  but  not  till 
these  men  and  others  like-minded  had  set 
England  on  fire.  For  one  thing,  they  had 
shed  their  blood  for  freedom  of  thought  and 
freedom  of  speech,  and  no  martyr  has  ever 
died  for  those  sacred  principles  in  vain.  The 
preacher's  very  existence  was  at  stake  in  the 
controversy,  whether  religion  was  to  consist 
of  prayers  and  offices  rendered  in  a  foreign 
tongue,  or  the  truths  which  free  men  were  to 
think  and  speak  in  their  own  free  speech. 
In  the  former  system  the  prophet  has  no 
place ;  in  the  latter  system  he  is  the  most 
precious  possession  of  his  age. 

I  hope  I  shall  not  weary  you  by  insistence 
on  this  point ;  but  the  tendency  of  theology 
to  become  an  esoteric  philosophy,  full  of 
technical  terms  understanded  only  by  the  ex- 
perts, has  the  inevitable  effect  that  its  profess- 
ors and  teachers  lose  touch  with  life.  Al- 
ways the  preacher  must  be  a  man  of  his 
time.  His  business  is  to  restate  the  eternal 
message  of  salvation  in  the  terms  of  to-day. 
Chaste  and  cultured  archaisms  are  pleasant 


THE  FOUNDERS  OF  FREEDOM  203 

to  the  palate  of  the  scholar  ;  but  the  Gospel 
is  for  the  people,  and  we  need  more  than 
anything  else,  men  of  the  people  who  know 
their  needs  and  their  thoughts,  and  can  make 
the  Evangel,  what  it  eternally  is,  the  property 
and  heritage  of  the  simple  and  the  poor. 
Some  of  you  will  recall,  by  way  of  illustra- 
tion, the  scathing  satires  of  Erasmus  on  the 
scholastic  theologians  and  preachers  who,  in 
his  time,  made  it  their  business  to  cultivate  a 
reputation  for  erudition  and  profundity,  by 
talking  in  words  that  the  vulgar  could  not 
understand.  This  is  a  specimen  which  Eras- 
mus gives  of  the  teaching  of  these  inflated 
doctrinaires.  "  They  say  that  '  person  '  does 
not  signify  relation  of  origin,  but  duplex  ne- 
gation of  communicability  in  genere,  that  is, 
it  connotes  something  positive,  and  is  a  noun 
of  the  first  instance,  not  the  second.  They 
say  the  persons  of  the  Divine  Nature  exist 
reciprocally  by  circumcision,  and  circum- 
cision is  when  a  thing  subsists  really  in 
something  else  which  is  really  distinct,  by 
the  mutual  assistance  of  presentiality  in  the 
same  essence."     After  reading  two  or  three 


204        THE   ROMANCE   OF   PREACHING 

lines  of  that  kind  of  thing,  you  feel  as  if  you 
were  in  a  lunatic  asylum.  Do  you  wonder 
that  men  and  women  sickened  and  wearied 
of  it  ?  And  do  you  wonder  that  the  Refor- 
mation preachers  brought  a  veritable  new 
revelation  to  the  world  when  they  read  out 
to  the  common  people  such  great  simple 
words  as  these,  "  I  am  the  Way  and  the 
Truth  and  the  Life  ;  no  man  cometh  unto  the 
Father  but  by  Me  "  ?  If  Tyndale  had  done 
nothing  else  by  his  translation  of  the  Bible 
he  had  taught  us  for  all  time  that  there  is  no 
more  dignified  and  majestic  diction  than  the 
simple  speech  of  the  common  people. 

I  cannot  explain  to  you  just  why  it  is,  that 
the  true  prophet  is  always  a  master  of  simple 
speech,  but  it  is  certain  that  no  man  can 
speak  home  to  the  hearts  of  his  fellow-men 
without  it.  Inasmuch  as  the  Reformation 
was  a  return  to  the  natural  and  to  the  human 
from  the  artificial  and  the  scholastic,  it  did 
more  than  change  the  world's  history,  it  re- 
vived the  order  of  prophets,  and  it  created  a 
literature.  From  Hugh  Latimer  and  John 
Penry,  to  Daniel  Defoe  and  John  Bunyan,  you 


THE  FOUNDERS  OF  FREEDOM    205 

can  read  the  influence  of  the  Reformation  in 
bringing  religion  back  to  life,  and  making  it 
the  inspiration  of  the  common  people. 

After  all,  it  was  but  natural  that  the  Puritan 
preacher  with  his  love  of  reality,  should  be 
impatient  of  the  mere  tricks  and  artifices  bor- 
rowed from  the  demagogue.  The  Richard 
Bernard  who  was  only  "  almost  persuaded  " 
to  become  a  pilgrim,  and  just  missed  immor- 
tality thereby,  dealt  out  wholesome  warnings 
to  young  preachers  in  his  book  entitled  "  The 
Faithful  Shepherd."  How  he  satirizes  those 
brethren  who,  as  Mr.  Spurgeon  used  to  say, 
"mistake  perspiration  for  inspiration,"  and 
try  to  produce  an  impression  by  violence 
which  could  not  be  produced  by  the  weight 
of  their  argument !  Some  forward  ones,  he 
declares,  are  "  moved  to  violent  motions  as 
casting  abroad  of  their  arms,  smiting  on  the 
pulpit,  lifting  themselves  up,  and  again  sud- 
denly stamping  down."  Others  "through 
too  great  feare  and  bashfulness  which  causeth 
hemmings,  spittings,  rubbing  the  browes, 
lifting  up  of  the  shoulders,  nodding  of  the 
head,  taking  often  hold  of  the  cloake  or  gown, 


206        THE  ROMANCE   OF  PREACHING 

fiddling  with  the  fingers  upon  the  breast  but- 
tons, streaking  of  the  beard  and  such-like 
toies."  There  is  sound  sense  as  well  as 
humour,  in  this  attempt  to  put  us  on  our 
guard  against  ridiculous  and  meaningless 
nervous  gestures  which  distract  and  annoy 
the  most  indulgent  of  our  hearers,  and  add 
nothing  to  our  power.  It  is  always  easier  in 
this  matter  to  enforce  the  truth  by  precept 
than  by  practice  ;  but  nothing  is  more  cer- 
tain than  that  the  man  who  has  learned  early 
the  right  modulation  of  the  voice,  and  to  be 
content  with  those  simple  gestures  which  are 
natural  and  dignified,  has  mastered  what  is 
fundamental  to  the  art  of  pulpit  oratory. 

That  this  was  no  chance  judgment  of 
some  isolated  Puritan  divine,  but  one  com- 
mon to  all  in  that  generation,  may  be  further 
gathered  from  an  excellent  passage  in  one  of 
John  Robinson's  forceful  writings.  "  As  a 
\  woman,  over-curiously  trimmed,  is  to  be  sus- 
pected, so  is  a  speech.  And  indeed  he 
that  goes  about  by  eloquence,  without  firm 
ground  of  reason  to  persuade,  goes  about  to 
deceive.     As  some  are  large  in  speech  out  of 


THE  FOUNDERS  OF  FREEDOM         207 

abundance  of  matter  and  upon  due  consider- 
ation, so  the  most  multiply  words  either  from 
weakness  or  vanity.  Some  excuse  their 
tediousness,  saying  that  they  cannot  speak 
shorter,  which  is  all  one  as  if  they  said  that 
they  have  unbridled  tongues  and  inordinate 
passions  setting  them  a-work.  I  have  been 
many  times  drawn  so  dry,  that  I  could  not 
well  speak  any  longer  for  want  of  matter  ; 
but  I  could  ever  speak  as  short  as  I  would." 
I  ask  you,  could  the  thing  be  better  put? 
Could  there  be  a  better  comparison  than  this 
of  a  highly-rhetorical  speech  or  sermon  to  "  a 
woman,  over-curiously  trimmed  "  ?  Have  we 
not  had  to  listen  to  many  discourses  where 
you  could  not  see  the  dress  for  the  trimmings? 
It  may  be  impossible  to  lay  down  any  canons 
of  good  taste  in  this  matter,  but  I  shall  ven- 
ture to  submit  to  you,  that  the  Puritan  frugal- 
ity of  illustration  and  adornment,  is  far  more 
effective  than  the  prodigality  and  even  prof- 
ligacy of  quotation  and  ornament  which  is 
sometimes  popular  among  us  to-day,  and 
which  may  dazzle,  but  does  not  really  subdue 
and  persuade  an  audience. 


208        THE  ROMANCE  OF  PREACHING 

Nevertheless,  you  are  not  to  suppose  that 
John  Robinson  could  not  estimate  the  worth 
and  value  of  apposite  and  pointed  illustra- 
tion. Dr.  John  Brown  has  borne  testimony 
to  the  wealth  of  his  reading,  the  catholicity  of 
his  range  of  knowledge.  He  has  discovered 
quotations  from  Plato,  Aristotle,  Herodotus, 
Thales,  Cicero,  Terence,  Pliny,  Plutarch, 
Seneca,  Epictetus  and  Suetonius  among  the 
classics  ;  among  the  Fathers,  from  Ignatius, 
Tertullian,  Cyprian,  Ambrose,  Augustine, 
Gregory  Nazienzen,  Lactantius,  Jerome, 
Basil  and  Eusebius ;  among  later  writers,  from 
Bernard,  Anselm,  Scaliger,  Beza,  Erasmus 
and  Melancthon,  as  well  as  his  own  contem- 
poraries. This  renowned  preacher  and 
scholar,  who  was  to  inspire  men  and  women 
to  attempt  and  achieve  one  of  the  most  heroic 
tasks  in  history,  was  a  man  steeped  in  litera- 
ture, who  had  wrestled  in  his  study  with 
great  themes,  who  had  sat  at  the  feet  of  men 
of  mind  of  all  schools  and  generations,  whose 
culture  was  as  catholic  as  his  sympathies  were 
wide,  and  who  yet,  as  Tennyson  says,  "wore 
his  weight  of  learning  lightly  as  a  flower," 


THE  FOUNDERS  OF  FREEDOM         209 

and  never  lost  touch  with  his  fellows,  or  gave 
up  to  academic  ambition  what  was  meant  for 
mankind.  Had  it  been  otherwise,  he  might 
have  become  a  walking  encyclopaedia,  but 
never  the  mainspring  of  that  gallant  adven- 
ture which  planted  a  free  church  on  a  free 
soil. 

The  more  I  study  the  personality  and  the 
preaching  of  John  Robinson,  the  less  I 
wonder  at  the  spirit  and  exploits  of  the  com- 
munity whose  members  owed  everything  to 
his  inspiration.  Under  the  strongest  tempta- 
tions to  intolerance,  he  maintained  a  generous 
temper  and  a  broad  Christian  outlook.  He 
was  immovably  firm  in  the  maintenance  of 
principles,  but  even  his  controversial  utter- 
ances are  distinguished  by  a  large  charity 
that  lifts  him  above  his  time.  And  I  cannot 
be  wrong  in  arguing,  that  his  ministry  bears 
the  marks  upon  it  of  the  influence  of  his 
church,  which  was  almost  alone  among  the 
separatist  communities  of  the  time  in  its 
freedom  from  unworthy  partisanship,  and  the 
frictions  and  bickerings  which  are  the  fruits 
of  jealousy  and  pedantry.     I  imagine  John 


2IO        THE   ROMANCE   OF   PREACHING 

Robinson  would  have  found  it  difficult  to  de- 
cide whether  his  people  owed  most  to  his 
preaching",  or  his  preaching  owed  most  to  his 
people.  One  has  the  feeling  that  such  a 
church  would  have  made  almost  any  preacher 
eloquent ;  yet  again,  one  is  driven  to  conclude 
that  such  a  preacher  would  have  created  a 
true  church  out  of  almost  any  material.  The 
fact  of  the  matter  is,  of  course,  that  the 
atmosphere  of  faith  and  prayer  does  make 
good  preaching  inevitable,  whereas  the  atti- 
tude of  suspicion  and  criticism  will  "  freeze 
the  genial  current  of  the  soul,"  and  give  to 
any  earnest  and  spiritual  minister  a  sense  of 
labouring  at  the  oar  to  no  purpose. 

It  is  not  possible  to  leave  out  of  account 
that  many  preachers  are  called  to  preach  to 
the  worldly,  the  unbelieving,  the  indifferent 
and  the  hostile  ;  and  we  should  be  contradict- 
ing some  of  the  most  glorious  facts  in  Chris- 
tian history,  if  we  did  not  recognize  that  God 
does  not  leave  His  witnesses  alone  when  they 
go  forth  on  His  errands,  no  matter  how  diffi- 
cult the  journey.  But  it  is  almost  impossible 
to  separate  John  Robinson  from  the  church 


THE   FOUNDERS   OF  FREEDOM  211 

he  loved  so  deeply,  and  which  loved  him  with 
equal  intensity  and  constancy.  He  was  just 
one  of  the  members  of  the  body,  deriving 
health  and  power  from  his  vital  relation  to  all 
the  rest,  and  communicating  his  own  life  and 
strength  to  them.  When  he  spoke  to  this 
outside  world,  when  he  put  pen  to  paper, 
when  he  became  a  champion  in  controversy, 
and  a  defender  of  his  faith  and  people,  it  was 
not  he  alone  who  spoke.  The  whole  church 
seemed  to  become  eloquent  in  and  through 
him.  Equally  impressive  is  it,  that  the  church 
members  to  whom  he  gave  his  blessing,  and 
a  double  portion  of  his  spirit,  seemed  to  re- 
produce his  faith,  courage  and  charity  when 
far  from  his  presence. 

Leagues  of  tempestuous  Atlantic  waters 
never  separated  people  and  pastor  in  ideal  or 
in  fellowship.  Still  the  mystic  spiritual  tie 
held.  Still  they  thought  together,  and  prayed 
together,  and  aspired  together,  and  wrought 
together.  It  was  as  if  he,  their  pastor,  were 
present  at  every  council  meeting,  was  a  guest 
in  every  cabin,  prayed  at  the  bedside  of  the 
dying,  joined  the  hands  of  the   newly-wed. 


212        THE   ROMANCE   OF  PREACHING 

and  committed  those  who  died  in  Christ  to 
their  last  resting  place  in  the  forest.  Of  all 
the  blows  that  fell  one  by  one  upon  that 
struggling  Pilgrim  community  in  the  bitter 
heroic  days,  when  death  and  famine  seemed 
their  most  familiar  acquaintances,  the  most 
crushing  and  heart-breaking  was  the  news  of 
the  death  of  their  beloved  pastor  ;  and  every 
soul  in  Plymouth  colony  felt  as  if  his  father 
had  fallen,  and  sorrowed  most  of  all,  that  they 
should  see  his  face  no  more. 

We  have  got  to  believe  more  than  we  do, 
in  this  sacred  cooperation  of  preacher  and 
people.  We  shall  have  no  ideal  preachers  in 
the  pulpit,  unless  and  until  we  have  ideal 
hearers  in  the  pew.  For  conquests  that  will 
startle  and  awaken  the  world,  the  need  will 
always  be  for  prophet  spirits  who  are  sus- 
tained and  illuminated  by  their  contact  with 
a  society  of  consecrated  souls.  It  is  all  very 
well  to  lecture  students  for  the  ministry  on 
the  vocation  and  equipment  of  the  preacher, 
or  on  the  ideal  of  his  calling,  but  in  sober 
truth,  such  lectures  ought  from  time  to  time 
to  be  delivered  to  the  officers  and  members 


THE  FOUNDERS  OF  FREEDOM    213 

of  churches  and  congregations.  They  make 
or  mar  the  ministry.  They  encourage  or 
discourage  the  preacher.  They  make  it  pos- 
sible for  him  to  be  at  his  best,  and  impossi- 
ble for  his  arrows  to  miss  the  mark.  They 
create  the  atmosphere  in  which  faith  can  live, 
and  doubt  cannot.  They  arm  him  for  unseen 
conflicts,  and  protect  him  by  their  prayers 
from  insidious  attacks  on  his  moral  integrity. 
Moreover,  it  is  they  who  multiply  his  message, 
translate  it  into  living  fact  and  deed,  and  so 
give  power  and  effect  to  his  ministry.  Let 
it  never  be  forgotten  that  modern  America 
sprang  out  of  the  ideal  relation  between  a 
pastor  and  a  church  ;  a  man  of  God  and  a 
people  of  God. 

Let  it  never  be  forgotten  that  the  problem 
was  thought  out  in  church  meeting,  and  the 
enterprise  planned  and  adopted  within  the 
atmosphere  of  a  Christian  assembly.  It  was 
there,  while  men  and  women  pleaded  for 
light,  and  for  faith  to  walk  in  it,  that  the 
spirit  of  illumination  was  vouchsafed,  under 
whose  gracious  guidance  the  yoke  became 
easy  and  the  burden  light.     Together,  while 


214        THE   ROMANCE  OF  PREACHING 

the  prophet-leader  saw  his  vision,  and  the 
people  kindled  to  it,  they  became  equal  to 
the  sacrifice,  and  confident  of  the  Will  and 
the  Way.  I  cannot  analyze  how  much  of 
those  faithful  discourses  that  will  stir  men's 
souls  to  the  end  of  time,  was  due  to  the  rapt 
and  resolute  faces  of  simple  heroes  and  hero- 
ines that  were  upturned  to  meet  his  gaze,  and 
how  much  of  their  exaltation  and  enthusiasm 
was  due  to  their  contact  with  a  soul  in  which 
indubitably  dwelt  Divine  insight  and  fire ; 
I  only  know  that  their  sublime  cooperation 
made  the  westward  track  of  the  Mayflower 
plain,  and  wrote  the  new  Book  of  Genesis  in 
the  Bible  of  human  destiny. 

Forgive  me  if  I  linger  lovingly  on  these 
familiar  scenes,  so  big  with  fate,  and  so 
weighty  with  instruction.  The  preacher  who 
has  not  pondered  over  these  origins  of  New 
England's  history,  must  blame  himself  if  he 
has  missed  much  inspiration  for  his  own 
work.  The  part  played  by  Moses  in  the  days 
of  the  Jewish  exodus  towards  the  Land  of 
Promise  is  not  one  wit  more  notable  or  sig- 
nificant than  the  part  played  by  John  Robin- 


THE  FOUNDERS  OF  FREEDOM    215 

son  in  the  exodus  that  ended  in  this  land  of 
promise.  I  might  spare  a  moment  or  two 
for  examples  of  his  genius  in  the  employment 
of  rare  and  suggestive  texts  of  Scripture,  and 
his  skill  in  turning  out-of-the-way  incidents 
in  Bible  narratives  to  profitable  account. 
There  are  many  seemingly  desert  places  in 
Scripture,  that  a  preacher  who  knows  his 
Bible,  can  make  to  blossom  like  the  rose. 
Not  that  there  was  any  strained  ingenuity 
about  John  Robinson's  way  with  texts.  But 
who  would  forget  that  text  out  of  the  Book 
of  Samuel  from  which  he  preached  on  the 
special  day  set  apart  for  inquiring  the  mind 
of  the  spirit  as  to  this  enterprise,  "And 
David's  men  said  unto  him,  Behold  we  be 
afraid  here  in  Judah  ;  how  much  more  then 
if  we  come  to  Keilah  against  the  armies  of 
the  Philistines  ?  Then  David  inquired  of  the 
Lord  yet  again.  And  the  Lord  answered 
him  and  said,  Arise,  go  down  to  Keilah  ;  for 
I  will  deliver  the  Philistines  into  thine  hand." 
Among  all  your  New  England  towns  to-day, 
I  wonder  if  there  is  one  named  Keilah  ;  and 
if  not,  whether  it  is  too  late  to  supply  the 


2l6        THE   ROMANCE  OF   PREACHING 

omission  ?  Unless  all  reports  lie,  there  are 
still  enough  Philistines  left  to  justify  the  ex- 
periment. 

Then  on  the  ever-memorable  day  when  he 
preached  to  the  Pilgrims  for  the  last  time,  the 
sermon  that  has  become  an  imperishable 
legacy  for  all  forward  souls,  he  found  his  text 
in  the  Book  of  Ezra,  "  I  proclaimed  a  fast 
there  at  the  river  Ahava  that  we  might  afflict 
ourselves  before  our  God,  to  seek  of  Him  a 
right  way  for  us,  and  for  our  little  ones,  and 
for  all  our  substance."  Think  how  these 
felicitous  words  must  have  accomplished 
their  purpose,  which  was  to  provoke  to  new 
fervour  of  prayer  and  faith  those  who  at  the 
crisis  of  their  fate  still  needed  to  be  assured 
that  theirs  was  a  God-prompted  and  God- 
guided  enterprise.  Often,  when  I  study  the 
preaching  of  our  fathers,  I  am  impressed  by 
the  fact  that  they  knew  their  Bibles  better 
than  we  do.  They  had  less  of  the  light  of 
criticism,  but  they  had,  I  think,  notwith- 
standing, a  more  exact  knowledge  of  Holy 
Writ.  To-day  this  great  territory  of  Scrip- 
ture is  like  a  modern  continent ;  extreme  and 


THE  FOUNDERS  OF  FREEDOM    217 

unhealthy  congestion  at  certain  well-known 
centres,  and  vast  tracts  of  country  unculti- 
vated and  unknown.  How  many  of  those 
listening  to  me  have  been  led  against  the 
"  Philistines  at  Keilah,"  or  have  heard  "  a  fast 
proclaimed  at  the  river  Ahava  "  ? 

Perhaps  we  flatter  ourselves  that  if  we  had 
part  and  lot  in  so  wonderful  a  movement  we, 
too,  should  be  moved  to  search  the  Scriptures, 
and  to  uncover  some  of  their  hidden  gems  of 
price.  But  that  is  to  harbour  an  undeveloped 
imagination.  Every  hour  of  assembly  is  a 
time  big  with  destiny.  Every  Sunday  men 
and  women  go  forth  from  the  tryst  with  God 
to  face  measureless  possibilities.  Suppose 
that  you  and  I,  who  have  the  unspeakable 
privilege  of  interpreting  the  book  of  life, 
realized  that  the  men  and  women  we  are  ad- 
dressing are  as  capable  of  disinterested 
sacrifices  and  noble  exploits  as  their  pro- 
genitors at  Leyden  ;  and  that  before  a  week 
is  out  some  of  them  may  have  launched  their 
Mayflower,  and  embraced  a  God-given  adven- 
ture, with  what  emotion  would  our  speech  to 
them  be  charged  ?     If  we  fail,  it  is  because 


2l8         THE  ROMANCE  OF   PREACHING 

we  do  not  see  the  possibilities  latent  in  what 
we  call  an  "  ordinary  congregation."  No  as- 
sembling of  ourselves  together  to  meet  with 
Christ  can  ever  be  "  ordinary."  That  is  only 
a  fashion  of  speech.  We  say  sometimes,  "  It 
was  just  an  ordinary  service."  If  we  have 
ceased  to  expect  extraordinary  manifestations 
of  God's  power,  and  revelations  of  His  will — 
that  our  young  men  should  see  visions  and 
our  old  men  dream  dreams — why  is  it  ?  It 
was  just  as  possible  that  your  fathers  at  Leyden 
should  say  "  Yes  "  or  "  No  "  to  the  beckoning 
hand  of  their  divine  destiny,  as  that  we  should 
accept  or  reject  the  higher  Will  for  our  own. 
There  was  no  single  element  present  at  their 
fateful  assembly  in  their  Leyden  meeting- 
house, that  may  not  be  present  at  any  hour 
of  worship  in  these  days,  and  in  the  land  of 
their  adoption.  All  that  is  necessary  for  us 
to  repeat  their  enterprises  and  achievements, 
is  soul  enough  to  believe  in  God's  will  and  to 
surrender  to  His  leadership, 

I  am  impressed  by  the  fact,  that  the  last 
picture  of  their  beloved  minister  which  the 
Pilgrims  carried  with  them  to  their  promised 


THE  FOUNDERS  OF  FREEDOM    219 

land,  was  the  one  so  simply  and  vividly 
described  by  the  historian  of  their  enterprise. 
"  The  tide — which  stays  for  no  man — calling 
them  away,  that  were  thus  loth  to  depart, 
their  Reverend  Pastor,  falling  down  on  his 
knees,  and  they  all  with  him,  with  watery 
cheeks,  commended  them  with  most  fervent 
prayers  unto  the  Lord  and  His  blessing." 
I  suspect  that  we  have  all  at  times  felt  what 
we  call  the  burden  of  extempore  prayer. 
But  I  am  certain  that  the  soul  of  the  prophet 
is  most  surely  and  powerfully  revealed  in  his 
prayers.  To  speak  to  men  of  God  is  a  high 
privilege.  There  is  perhaps  one  higher  :  it 
is  to  speak  to  God  for  men.  I  do  not  doubt 
that  many  a  great  saying  of  John  Robinson 
lingered  in  the  memories  of  his  pilgrim  flock, 
and  was  recalled  under  the  pine-trees  and 
behind  the  stockades  in  their  new  settlement. 
But  assuredly  the  most  sacred  recollection 
of  all,  was  of  his  tender  and  loving  interces- 
sions on  their  behalf ;  and  they  came  to  feel 
that  the  greatest  moments  in  their  lives,  were 
those  ever-memorable  ones  when  that  proph- 
et-spirit   talked    with    God,    and    they   saw 


220        THE   ROMANCE  OF  PREACHING 

heaven  open,  and  heard  things  scarce  law- 
ful for  man  to  hear.  God  forgive  us  that 
our  pulpit  prayers  tend  to  become  so  formal, 
and  even  unreal!  For  this  is  the  sublimest 
office  the  minister  of  the  Kingdom  is  called 
to  fulfill.  It  is  out  of  such  spirit  of  com- 
munion and  sacred  intercourse  with  Deity 
that  the  pilgrim  ambition  is  born,  and  the 
pilgrim  vow  sealed  and  ratified.  Nay,  I  go 
further.  It  is  in  our  prayers  that  our  real 
ideals  and  hopes  for  our  people  are  revealed. 
If  we  have  great  aspirations  for  them  ;  if  in 
our  personal  desire  we  destine  them  to  sacri- 
ficial service  ;  if  we  so  love  them  as  to  cher- 
ish for  them  the  glory  and  honour  of  the 
God-dedicated  and  forward-moving  life,  they 
( will  make  the  discovery  in  our  prayers.     For 

)lit  is  in  our  prayers  that  the  deeps  of  the  soul 
f  are  uncovered,  and  the  passionate  yearnings 
;  of  the  true  minister  for  his  people  make  them- 
i selves  known.  That  is  a  great  adjective 
which  Scripture  applies  to  the  fervent  prayers 
of  a  good  man.  They  are  "energizing." 
They  charge  receptive  souls  with  new  and 
sublime  forces.     They  reestablish  broken  or 


THE  FOUNDERS   OF  FREEDOM         221 

imperfect  connections  witii  the  source  of 
Divine  power.  They  baptize  the  waiting, 
willing,  listening  heart  with  new  vitality. 
They  "  energize  " — dare  I  say  "  electrify  "  ? — 
the  mind.  Who  can  doubt  that  those  who 
knelt  around  their  spiritual  father  at  Delft- 
haven,  with  the  rickety  ship  Speedwell 
lying  near  as  if  to  remind  them  of  the  perils 
and  discomforts  of  their  adventure,  were 
braced  and  strengthened  and  "  energized  " 
for  their  deathless  task  by  the  fervent  appli- 
cations of  that  man  of  God?  Let  no  preacher 
among  us  fail  to  realize  the  power  of  in- 
spiration that  may  communicate  itself  through 
his  sermons  to  his  congregation  ;  but  least 
of  all  let  him  forget  that  the  final  stimulus  to 
deeds  of  faith  and  devotion  will  be  felt  and, 
known  by  his  people  in  the  supreme  hour  of 
fervent  and  energizing  prayer. 

I  must  ask  you  to  spare  one  thought  for 
a  feature  of  the  famous  expedition  on  which 
perhaps  we  do  not  often  dwell.  No  minister 
went  with  them  ;  that  is,  no  ordained  preacher 
and  pastor.  Apart  from  the  fragrant  memory 
of  their  former  leader's  ministry,  they  were 


222        THE   ROMANCE   OF   PREACHING 

dependent  on  what  we  sometimes  speak  of 
as  a  "  layman's "  service.  I  would  like  to 
press  Elder  Brewster's  example  upon  you,  as 
another  and  unanswerable  argument  why 
we  should  not  deprive  ourselves,  as  we  do, 
of  the  spiritual  wealth  of  men  and  women  in 
our  churches  who  have  not  devoted  them- 
selves to  the  formal  ministry,  but  whose 
thought  and  experience  would  enrich  our 
corporate  life.  Would  to  God  that  all  the 
Lord's  servants  were  prophets  !  When  shall 
we  get  away  from  the  paralyzing  miscon- 
ception that  a  man  of  affairs  is  thereby  in- 
capacitated from  being  a  spiritual  leader? 
I  make  no  doubt  that  the  meditations  of 
Elder  Brewster  were  all  the  wiser  and  nobler 
that  he  had  many  public  anxieties  to  bear, 
and  responsibilities  to  carry.  It  ought  to  be 
forever  symbolical  of  New  England,  that  the 
religious  spirit  was  united  to  the  spirit  of 
practical  citizenship  in  him  who,  unordained 
of  man,  assumed  spiritual  leadership  within 
the  pilgrim  theocracy. 

So  the  preaching   of   the  Word,  and  the 
higher  Idealism,  resulted  in  the  founding  of 


THE   FOUNDERS   OF   FREEDOM  223 

a  new  world  "  dedicated  to  the  proposition," 
as  Lincoln  would  say,  that  Christ's  will  is 
the  only  worthy  and  wholesome  law  for  a 
state.  To  recover  that  ideal  we  need  a  new 
race  of  prophets — seers  of  inspired  vision  like 
John  Robinson,  statesmen  of  spiritual  ex- 
perience and  moral  stature  like  Brewster. 
How  the  Pilgrim  church  created  the  Pilgrim 
state  ;  how  it  drew  up  as  Mr.  Bancroft  says, 
"the  first  instrument  conferring  equal  civil 
and  religious  rights  on  every  member  of  the 
commonwealth  "  ;  how  it  sought  to  do  the 
will  of  God  on  earth  is  matter  of  history. 
Imperishable  as  that  history  is,  it  is  of  little 
worth  for  the  world  of  to-morrow  in  com- 
parison with  the  necessity  that  her  new 
preachers  and  spiritual  leaders  should 
"highly  resolve,"  that  they  will  bring  to 
the  stupendous  task  of  creating  yet  another 
"  new  world  "  a  double  portion  of  the  spirit 
of  their  sires — the  same  faith,  fortitude  and 
sacred  adventure,  a  like  endurance  in  the 
teeth  of  danger,  suffering  and  death,  and 
"  an  equal  temper  of  heroic  hearts." 


LECTURE  VII 

THE  PASSION  OF  EVANGELISM : 
WESLEY  AND  WHITEFIELD 


LECTURE  VII 

THE  PASSION  OF  EVANGELISM  : 
WESLEY  AND  WHITEFIELD 

THE  problem  of  the  Preacher  as 
evangelist  is  one  of  which  we  are 
all  bound  to  think,  and  on  which 
history  has  much  to  teach.  I  shall  begin  by 
agreeing  that  we  make  far  too  sharp  a  divi- 
sion between  a  ministry  that  is  educational, 
and  a  ministry  that  is  evangelistic  ;  and  too 
marked  a  distinction  between  a  morning 
service  for  edifying  the  saints,  and  an  even- 
ing service  for  evangelizing  the  sinners. 
There  seems  to  be  no  adequate  reason  why 
people  should  take  their  minds  to  church  in 
the  forenoon,  and  their  souls  in  the  evening. 
If  occasionally  more  soul  were  put  into  the 
morning  sermon,  and  more  mind  into  the 
evening  sermon,  we  might  improve  the  qual- 
ity of  the  saints  and  make  the  conversion  of 
the  sinners  more  permanent.  But  when  that 
227 


2  28        THE   ROMANCE   OF  PREACHING 

is  said,  I  shall  proceed  to  state  my  main 
proposition  with  all  the  force  I  can  command — 
that  it  is  time  all  Christian  preachers  equipped 
themselves  more  definitely  for  evangelistic 
work,  and  refused  to  allow  the  most  vital 
part  of  their  aggressive  policy  to  be  under- 
taken for  them  by  an  order  of  preachers  how- 
ever able  and  devoted  who  have  to  be  called 
in  for  the  purpose  like  consulting  physicians 
at  a  crisis.  The  ministry  that  is  not  an  evan- 
gelistic ministry  is  not  in  the  full  sense  a 
Christian  ministry,  for  we  cannot  obey  our 
Lord's  command  and  leave  His  Divine  ap- 
peal unuttered  to  those  who  are  heedless  and 
unresponsive. 

But  it  is  equally  certain  that  evangelism, 
rightly  understood,  is  not  as  simple  a  matter 
as  it  seems.  It  is  the  greatest  mistake  in  the 
world  to  imagine  that  defects  in  education 
are  a  qualification  for  evangelism  ;  or  that,  to 
put  it  in  another  way,  such  an  absence  of  real 
culture  as  would  disqualify  a  man  for  the  full 
work  of  the  ministry  might  rank  as  an  en- 
dowment for  his  work  as  an  evangelist.  I 
rate  the  work  of  evangelism  far  higher  than 


THE   PASSION   OF  EVANGELISM        229 

that.  It  is  work  that  demands  the  best 
brains  we  possess  ;  and  no  training  can  be 
too  thorough,  and  no  reading  too  wide  for  the 
minister  whose  aim  it  is  to  be  to  bring  the  ir- 
religious and  the  indifferent  on  to  the  side  of 
Christ  and  the  Kingdom.  We  can  never 
forget  that  it  was  Paul,  the  most  accomplished 
and  erudite  of  the  apostles,  whose  soul  was 
fired  most  with  a  passion  for  evangelism  be- 
fore which  all  the  old  racial  barriers  went 
down  like  a  bowing  wall  and  a  tottering 
fence. 

Does  anybody  suppose  that  he  would  have 
been  better  fitted  for  his  apostolic  work  if  he 
had  never  sat  at  the  feet  of  Gamaliel  ?  So 
far  from  lamenting  the  catholicity  of  his  cul- 
ture, we  know  how  much  depended  upon  his 
ability  to  become  as  a  Greek  to  win  the 
Greeks,  and  as  a  Roman  to  win  the  Romans. 
I  am  not  prepared  to  argue  that  the  result  of 
learning  is  always  to  widen  the  sympathies  ; 
and  that  learned  men  are  invariably  the  most 
human  and  versatile  of  beings.  Experience 
hardly  warrants  so  satisfactory  a  generaliza- 
tion, and  Carlyle's  old  friend  "  Dry-as-dust," 


230       THE   ROMANCE   OF   PREACHING 

•  "  with  loads  of  learned  lumber  in  his  head," 
does  exist  even  outside  novels  like  "  Middle- 
march."  Indeed,  the  notorious  fact  that  many 
profound  scholars  have  been  men  of  narrow 
sympathies  and  pedantic  opinions,  has  been  re- 
sponsible for  the  fear,  that  one  may  still  hear 
expressed,  lest  promising  young  preachers 
should  be  ruined  at  college  by  being  made 
too  bookish  and  scholastic.  But  Paul's  ex- 
ample is  decisive  as  to  the  value,  for  the  work 
of  evangelism,  of  that  generous  culture  which 
frankly  confesses  the  debt  it  owes  to  Jew  and 
Roman,  Greek  and  Barbarian, — a  confession 
which,  in  itself,  is  more  than  half  the  victory 
over  those  disabling  prejudices  which  prevent 
a  missionary  from  getting  on  terms  with  his 
audience.  It  is  surely  not  too  much  to  say 
that,  humanly  speaking,  no  untrained  and 
uncultured  man  could  have  done  Paul's  work 
among  conditions  so  diverse.  The  Church 
of  to-day  needs  to  ponder  deeply  on  this 
Ifact,  that  it  was  the  man  of  most  massive  in- 
'  tellect  and  most  varied  scholarship,  who  was 
the  first  great  Christian  evangelist. 

No  one  will  claim  for  St.  Francis  of  Assisi 


THE  PASSION   OF  EVANGELISM        23 1 

the  rank  of  a  scholar  ;  but  his  education  was 
good  as  the  standard  of  the  time  was,  and 
there  are  no  evidences  of  weakness  in  that 
charming  intellect  which  he  carried  with  him 
through  his  spiritual  pilgrimage  to  the 
Italian  peasantry.  But  as  to  his  namesake, 
Francis  de  Xavier,  there  are  no  deductions  to 
be  made.  He  who  was  to  wear  his  life  out 
in  romantic  evangelistic  journeying  through 
lands  that  were  at  that  time  the  Ultima  Thiile 
of  travel,  was  educated  in  the  University  of 
Paris,  became  a  lecturer  in  the  Aristotelian 
philosophy,  and  might  have  successfully 
aspired  to  almost  any  position  in  that 
academic  world,  so  brilliant  were  his  intel- 
lectual talents.  One  cannot  have  all  the 
gifts  ;  and  even  Xavier  confesses  in  his  let- 
ters that  he  had  no  skill  in  languages,  which 
was  the  reason  why  his  work  had  to  be  done 
through  the  difficult  medium  of  an  interpre- 
ter, and  why  the  legend  arose  that  his  defi- 
ciencies in  this  respect  were  conveniently 
made  good  by  the  gift  of  tongues.  No  gram- 
mars and  dictionaries  were  available  in  the 
strange  lands  of  his  voluntary  exile  ;  and,  had 


232       THE  ROMANCE  OF  PREACHING 

they  been,  he  had  no  time  for  their  study. 
But  to  a  hero  of  his  spirit  there  was  less  em- 
barrassment in  this  deficiency  than  most  men 
would  have  suffered.  For  he  had  within  him 
the  universal  language  of  sympathy  and  faith, 
which  was  the  secret  of  his  amazing  con- 
quests. 

Even  in  these  modern  days  there  is  some- 
thing staggering  in  the  bare  record  of  his 
phenomenal  travels.  Fever  and  peril,  by  land 
and  sea,  had  no  terrors  for  him.  From 
Portugal  to  Mozambique  and  on  to  Goa ; 
from  Goa  to  Travancore  ;  from  Travancore  to 
Ceylon ;  from  Ceylon  to  Malacca ;  from 
Malacca  to  Japan  ;  from  Japan  back  again  to 
India,  and  through  that  last  desperate  fight 
for  a  foothold  in  China ;  we  watch  this  fiery 
and  intrepid  evangelist,  whose  powerful  mind 
was  undaunted  by  the  social,  moral  and 
religious  difficulties  which  the  life  of  the 
Orient  presented.  There  are  always  some 
people  who  argue  that  men  of  the  first  rank 
in  intellectual  power  are  thrown  away  on 
evangelistic  missions,  either  to  the  depraved 
of   their  own  land,  or  to  the  habitations  of 


THE  PASSION   OF  EVANGELISM        233 

heathenism.  As  they  watch  the  academic 
career  of  a  Henry  Martyn  till  he  fulfills  the 
highest  ambition  of  a  mathematical  scholar 
at  Cambridge  University,  wins  the  University 
prize  for  Latin  composition,  is  appointed  a 
fellow  of  his  college,  and  then  dedicates  his 
talents  to  the  mission  field,  they  cry  in 
protest,  "To  what  purpose  is  this  waste?" 
But  they  do  not  tell  us  by  what  means,  or  in 
what  career,  those  brilliant  parts  of  Henry 
Martyn  might  better  have  been  unified  and 
concentrated  and  employed,  for  the  welfare 
of  humanity. 

Think  of  him  as  Sir  James  Stephen 
describes  him  in  his  Cambridge  days,  and 
before  his  life  decision  had  been  taken.  The 
passage  is  a  famous  one  :  "  a  man  born  to 
love  with  ardour  and  to  hate  with  vehemence ; 
amorous,  irascible,  ambitious  and  vain  ;  with- 
out one  torpid  nerve  about  him  ;  aiming  at 
universal  excellence  in  science,  in  literature, 
in  conversation,  in  horsemanship  and  even  in 
dress  ;  not  without  some  gay  fancies,  but  more 
prone  to  austere  and  melancholy  thoughts  ; 
patient  of  the  most  toilsome  inquiries,  though 


234        THE   ROMANCE  OF  PREACHING 

not  wooing  philosophy  for  her  own  sake ; 
animated  by  the  poetical  temperament,  though 
unvisited  by  any  poetical  inspiration  ;  eager 
for  enterprise,  though  thinking  meanly  of 
the  reward  to  which  the  adventurous  aspire  ; 
uniting  in  himself,  though  as  yet  unable  to 
concentrate  and  to  harmonize  them,  many 
keen  desires,  many  high  powers,  and  much 
constitutional  dejection — the  chaotic  materials 
of  a  great  character."  Chaotic  materials  in- 
deed 1  How  the  vision  came  to  Henry 
Martyn,  in  the  light  of  which  this  chaos  was 
resolved  into  order  and  harmony,  and  how 
henceforth  he  saw  his  way,  and  could  say 
with  the  apostle,  "  This  one  thing  I  do,"  is  the 
story  of  his  conversion,  and  his  self-dedica- 
tion to  the  work  of  an  evangelist.  To  those 
whose  thoughts  are  engrossed  with  secular 
ambitions,  his  was  a  lost  life,  and  he  himself 
the  mere  victim  of  a  fanaticism  that  laid  waste 
his  powers.  But  to  all  who  understand  what 
are  the  real  honours  to  be  won  on  this  earth, 
and  the  permanent  foundations  of  fame,  Henry 
Martyn's  disinterested  devotion,  and  sacrifi- 
cial labours,  belong  to  those  records  which 


THE   PASSION   OF  EVANGELISM        235 

make  us  proud  of  our  humanity.  The 
beautiful  tribute  might  be  paid  to  him  which 
is  engraved  on  the  cenotaph  of  John  Howard 
the  prison  reformer,  in  St.  Paul's  Cathedral, 
that  "  he  followed  an  open  but  unfrequented 
pathway  to  immortality."  There  were,  doubt- 
less, many  easier  and  pleasanter  pathways 
open  to  him ;  but  his  feet  followed  where  his 
heart  and  his  reason  led  the  way.  He  had 
reached  what,  I  often  think,  is  the  most  pro- 
found conviction  possible  to  us,  and  one  which 
can  only  be  entertained  by  an  intellect  that  is 
powerful  enough  to  penetrate  to  that  reality 
which  lies  beneath  the  outward  shows  of 
things — the  conviction  expressed  in  a  passage 
in  his  journal  written  about  the  natives  on  his 
first  landing  in  India,  "  I  feel  that  they  are  my 
brethren  in  the  flesh,  precisely  on  a  level 
with  myself."  You  may  put  that  saying  of 
his  side  by  side  with  David  Livingstone's 
confession  that,  after  living  among  and  for 
the  native  Africans,  he  forgot  that  they  were 
black  and  remembered  only  that  they  were 
fellow-mortals.  I  repeat,  that  it  does  not  re- 
quire a  powerful  mind  to  perceive  the  external 


236        THE   ROMANCE  OF   PREACHING 

differences  between  one  race  and  another, 
but  it  does  require  an  absolutely  just  and 
strong  reason  to  discern  the  fundamental 
unity  of  humanity,  and  to  live  in  the  con- 
sciousness of  that,  rather  than  of  any  outward 
distinctions,  whether  of  colour,  class  or  creed. 
This,  indeed,  I  should  be  disposed  to  regard 
as  the  most  indispensable  endowment  of  the 
evangelist.  The  converted  prize-fighter,  in 
John  Masefield's  vivid  poem,  cries  out : 

"  I  thought  that  Christ  had  given  me  birth 
To  brother  all  the  sons  of  earth," 

And  surely  we  may  with  confidence  contend, 
that  this  is  the  purpose  and  effect  of  the  new 
birth.  The  new  spirit  that  is  created  thereby 
is  one  of  brotherhood  to  all  the  sons  of  earth 
without  distinction.  This  is  not  the  language 
of  sentimentalism.  It  is,  once  again,  a 
"  glory  of  the  lighted  mind."  It  is  the  fruit 
of  the  spirit  of  justice  and  equity  new-born 
within  the  God-surrendered  soul.  If  I  were 
alone  in  the  opinion  I  should  still  maintain 
that  the  supreme  proof  of  Henry  Marty n's 
intellectual  greatness  is  not  to  be  found  in  his 


THE  PASSION  OF  EVANGELISM        237 

New  Testament  translated  into  Hindustani, 
or  the  Book  of  Psalms  translated  into  Persian, 
but  rather  in  the  absolute  fraternity  of  spirit 
which  inspired  his  labours  among  the  beggars 
of  Cawnpore,  and  the  unshaken  constancy  of 
purpose  which  held  him  faithful  through  his 
final  painful  wanderings,  until  fever-wasted 
and  shattered  by  disease,  he  sank,  at  the  age 
of  thirty-two,  into  his  lonely  grave  at  Tokat. 
Such  was  the  passion  of  evangelism  which 
exalted  and  mastered  Henry  Martyn,  so  that 
the  young  brow  of  a  famous  Cambridge 
scholar  wears,  to-day,  the  aureole  of  a  modern 
saint ;  and  so  that  Lord  Macaulay  was  moved 
to  write  the  well-known  lines  of  him  : 


"  In  manhood's  early  bloom 
The  Christian  hero  found  a  pagan  tomb  ; 
Religion,  sorrowing  o'er  her  favourite  son, 
Points  to  the  glorious  trophies  which  he  won. 
Eternal  trophies,  not  with  slaughter  red, 
Not  stained  with  tears  by  hopeless  captives  shed  ; 
But  trophies  of  the  Cross." 

But  surely   we  may  say  that  outside  the 
apostolic  era,  the  greatest  evangelistic  move- 


I 


238       THE  ROMANCE  OF  PREACHING 

ment  was  the  one  that  changed  the  face  of 
England,  and  gave  birth  to  the  new  era  of 
missionary  expansion  and  adventure.  The 
breath  that  filled  the  sails  of  the  good  ship 
Duff- — the  first  distinctively  missionary  ship 
that  ever  sailed  the  ocean — was  in  reality 
that  mystic  rushing  mighty  wind  which 
swept  over  the  lifeless  soul  of  England  at  the 
great  Pentecostal  season  of  the  evangelical 
Revival.  The  new  missionary  enterprise  was 
the  witness  to  the  reality  of  this  rebirth  of 
the  Church.  The  satisfying  proof  that  the 
Lord  was  visiting  His  people  was,  that  the 
unknown  heathen  of  Tahiti  were  seen  to  be 
not  only  as  needy,  but  as  worthy  of  sacrificial 
service,  as  their  brethren  in  the  neglected  vil- 
lages and  city-slums  of  England.  The  re- 
generate churches  of  Christ,  in  my  own  coun- 
try, could  not  close  their  eyes  to  the  vision  of 
a  perishing  humanity,  but  fervently  believed 
that  Christ  had,  indeed,  given  them  birth 

"  To  brother  all  the  sons  of  earth." 

Yet  if  ever  evangelism  had  plausible  ex- 
cuse to  offer  for  concentration,  and  a  narrow- 


THE  PASSION  OF  EVANGELISM        239 

ing  of  the  area  of  service,  it  was  at  that 
memorable  time.  Something  that  sounded 
perilously  like  common-sense  took  up  its 
parable,  and  pleaded  that,  until  the  work  of 
Christianization  was  complete  at  home,  it 
was  mere  waste  of  good  money  and  valuable 
lives  to  evangelize  the  far  islands  of  the 
Pacific.  Could  Henry  Nott  find  no  sphere 
of  work  as  a  city  missionary  in  the  East  end 
of  London,  that  he  must  hazard  every- 
thing for  the  Tahitian  cannibals  ?  It  was,  at 
bottom,  the  old  heresy  that  would  have 
chained  Paul  to  Jerusalem,  and  imprisoned 
Christianity  within  the  narrow  limits  of 
Palestine.  The  old  patriotism  of  Xh^  Jewish 
prophet  might  have  persisted,  but  the  new 
patriotism  of  the  Christian  prophet  must  as- 
suredly have  perished.  What  I  have  called 
the  epic  of  world-conquest,  would  have  been 
no  more  than  a  poor  attenuated  apology  for 
a  great  poem.  The  plain  fact  is,  that  Chris- 
tianity cannot  fly  either  a  national  or  a  racial 
flag.  It  is  world-empire  or  nothing.  This 
is  its  Romance.  The  Cross  must  claim  its 
sway  over  all  continents,  islands  and  oceans, 


240        THE   ROMANCE  OF  PREACHING 

or  its  glory  is  departed.  That  is  why  evan- 
gelism is  so  essential  in  any  true  interpreta- 
tion of  our  religion.  It  sounds  the  universal 
note.  It  levels,  in  faith,  all  barriers.  It  has 
a  regenerate  imagination.  It  is  fired  by  the 
patriotism  of  Humanity.  The  passion  for 
souls  is  its  mainspring.  Material  space  is  as 
nothing.  The  soil  of  England  or  America  is 
of  no  more  consequence  in  the  sight  of  the 
Son  of  Man  than  the  soil  of  Tahiti,  Central 
Africa  or  Labrador.  Evangelism  means  the 
love  of  man  as  man.  That  is  why  its  results 
are  so  mighty.  That  is  why  the  most  obsti- 
nate prejudices  melt  away  before  it.  That  is 
why,  when  churches  grow  cold  and  self- 
centered,  and  lose  the  evangelistic  spirit, 
straightway  those  bigotries  reappear,  and  the 
cruel  divisive  walls  that  sever  man  from  his 
fellow-man  are  rebuilt.  Evangelism,  and 
the  spirit  it  represents,  is  the  secret  of  the 
unity  of  humanity.  Within  its  breast  lie  the 
spiritual  forces  that  are  to  conquer  the  proud 
and  bitter  antagonisms  of  great  empires  and 
nations,  safeguard  the  rights  and  liberties  of 
the  weak,  and  create  the  just  and  equitable 


THE   PASSION   OF   EVANGELISM        24I 

Spirit  which  is  the  best  guarantee  of  world- 
peace  and  world-progress. 

I  am  still  insistent  that,  for  the  noblest  form 
of  evangelism,  God  wills  the  dedication  of  the 
finest  intellectual  powers,  because  I  am  ar- 
guing that  the  policy  of  evangelism  is  de- 
manded and  justified  by  the  highest  reason. 
We  all  remember  that  the  evangelical  Re- 
vival which  saved  England  morally,  spiri- 
tually and  politically  was  born  at  Oxford, 
which  has  not  only  been  as  Matthew  Arnold 
said,  "  The  home  of  lost  causes  and  forsaken 
beliefs,"  but  the  birthplace  of  many  a  refor- 
mation to  which  mankind  owes  much.  Wise 
men  are  always  watchful  of  those  centres  of 
thought  where  the  representatives  of  the 
coming  generation  are  facing  the  issues  of 
life.  But  I  do  not  know  that  the  wisest  ob- 
servers of  that  day  indulged  in  any  radiant 
prophecies  as  to  the  future  influence  of  the 
much-ridiculed  members  of  the  Holy  Club, 
or  spared  more  than  a  passing  thought  for 
two  ardent  young  men,  John  Wesley  and 
George  Whitefield,  who  were  associates  in 
the  society  stigmatized  by  that  name. 


242        THE   ROMANCE  OF  PREACHING 

To  be  quite  frank,  John  Wesley,  as  a  youth, 
was  not  a  very  lovable  person  ;  and  White- 
field's  perfervid  and  dramatic  nature  had 
vent  in  extravagances  calculated,  rather  to 
alienate  than  to  attract,  the  average  Univer- 
sity undergraduate.  But  all  the  same, 
through  the  petty  persecutions  and  even 
violent  controversies  in  which  they  were  in- 
volved, the  honours  of  war  were  all  with 
those  who  could  not  be  satisfied  by  the  arid 
and  ambitionless  faith,  which  did  duty  for 
Christianity  over  well-nigh  the  whole  area  of 
so-called  Christian  England.  They  knew 
that  if  God  was  a  fact,  and  Christ's  Gospel  a 
reality,  then  the  existing  church  in  England 
was  a  caricature  and  a  farce.  They  felt, 
moreover,  that  to  be  the  ministers  of  Chris- 
tianity meant  to  be  in  the  grip  of  a  resistless 
Power,  servants  of  an  inerrant  Will,  whose 
Sovereignty  could  not  be  satisfied  with  any- 
thing less  than  the  surrender  of  the  whole 
being.  They  faced  the  claims  of  Christ, 
even  as  they  appropriated  His  promises, 
with  unshrinking  trust ;  and  the  result  was, 
that  when  the  time  came,  they  were  found  to 


THE   PASSION   OF  EVANGELISM        243 

be  endowed  with  a  vision  of  the  Kingdom 
such  as  had  not  been  conferred  by  apostolic 
hands  on  any  of  their  clerical  contemporaries. 
The  name  and  tradition  of  George  White- 
field  are  perhaps  especially  dear  to  me  ;  but 
I  should  not  be  true  to  my  own  convictions 
if  I  did  not  confess  that  John  Wesley,  as  his 
was  the  finer  intellect,  was  the  more  powerful 
evangelist  so  far  as  permanent  results  were 
concerned.  There  are  tests  by  which  this 
may  be  judged,  apart  altogether  from  the 
obvious  statistical  ones.  George  Whitefield, 
to  the  end  of  his  life,  never  realized  what 
human  slavery  meant,  nor  saw  any  incon- 
sistency in  offering  spiritual  redemption  to 
those  whose  physical  servitude  he  was  un- 
willing to  end.  Wesley's  keener  and  stronger 
mind  searched  the  slave  system  to  its  foun- 
dations, and  unhesitatingly  and  passionately 
condemned  it.  Yet  Whitefield's  tempera- 
ment was  far  more  naturally  sympathetic 
and  tender  than  Wesley's.  Where  he  fell 
short  was  in  intellectual  power  ;  and  that 
shortcoming  was  responsible  for  the  lack,  of 
real  human  statesmanship,  which  spelled  fail- 


244        THE   ROMANCE   OF  PREACHING 

ure  to  secure  the  full  results  of  his  unparal- 
lelled  labours. 

I  know  all  that  can  fairly  be  alleged 
against  John  Wesley's  strength  on  the  in- 
tellectual side,  by  reason  of  the  vein  of  super- 
stition from  which  he  was  by  no  means  free, 
and  his  lamentable  misjudgment  of  the  Amer- 
ican case,  at  the  time  of  the  War  of  Independ- 
ence. It  is  well  to  know  that  our  heroes  are 
so  vulnerable,  as  there  is  the  less  temptation 
to  dehumanize  them  by  a  doctrine  of  infalli- 
bility. But  one  thing  there  is  about  John 
Wesley  which  every  careful  student  of  his 
career,  and  especially  of  his  preaching  career, 
must  observe — that  he  was  never  satisfied  to 
persevere  in  any  course  which  he  could  not 
justify  to  his  own  reason;  and  that  again 
land  again  he  changed  his  views  against  all 
his  traditions  and  prejudices  because  he 
could  not  defend  an  attitude  of  obscurantism 
or  conservatism.  It  is  characteristic  of  him 
that  when  he  first  meditated  taking  orders 
in  the  Church  of  England,  he  was  involved 
in  serious  difficulties  because  of  the  Calvin- 
ism   of    the    articles,    and    the    "  excluding 


THE   PASSION   OF  EVANGELISM        245 

clauses"  of  the  Athanasian  Creed.  As 
everybody  knows,  his  objection  to  White- 
field's  programme  of  field-preaching  sprang 
out  of  his  intimated  stiff  prejudice  in  favour 
of  the  existing  conventions  that  governed 
public  worship  and  the  preaching  of  the 
Gospel. 

But  he  could  not  resist  the  argument  of 
the  Sermon  on  the  Mount ;  and  he  saw  that 
apostolic  practice  was  of  far  more  importance 
and  authority  than  ecclesiastical  conventions, 
which  could  neither  be  defended  by  Scripture 
nor  by  common-sense.  Let  us  remember  not 
only  his  limitations,  but  all  from  which  he 
emancipated  himself.  Let  us  remember  that 
by  temperament  he  was  an  aristocrat ;  and 
that  his  affinities  were  rather  academic  than 
democratic.  Remember  his  scholarly  endow- 
ments ;  that  he  and  his  brother  Charles  were 
accustomed  to  converse  in  Latin  to  the  end 
of  their  lifetime.  Remember  his  passionate 
and  pathetic  devotion  to  the  church  in  which 
he  was  ordained,  and  his  concern  to  be  her 
faithful  son,  subject  to  all  reasonable  author- 
ity.    Then  recall  how,  in  spite  of  the   past. 


246        THE   ROMANCE  OF  PREACHING 

and  in  spite  of  himself,  he  was  taught  by- 
slow  experience  that  for  the  work  of  Evangel- 
ism he  must  sound  the  universal  note.  "  I 
am  a  priest  of  the  Church  Universal,"  he 
claims ;  and  again  utters  the  memorable 
words,  "The  world  is  my  parish."  The  fasci- 
nation of  John  Wesley's  life  is  in  the  gradual 
achievement  of  full  spiritual  liberty,  and 
emancipation  from  the  trammels  of  ecclesi- 
astical convention,  as  his  spirit  is  by  degrees 
illuminated  in  actual  contact  with  his  fellows, 
and  through  a  deep  experience  of  the  laws 
and  methods  of  salvation. 

If  that  argument  is  not  conceded,  I  should 
have  to  make  appeal  to  his  sermons  ;  and  I 
should  do  it  with  all  confidence.  As  evangel- 
istic discourses  they  are  most  significant  and 
most  surprising.  The  evidences  of  a  mind 
steeped  in  classical  culture  and  keenly  alive 
to  the  thought  of  his  time,  abound  on  almost 
every  page.  Every  perusal  of  them  leaves 
me  wondering,  what  it  was  in  them,  that 
pierced  the  consciences  of  the  most  hard- 
ened sinners  to  the  quick.  There  is  nothing 
sensational    in    this    evangelism.     There    is 


THE  PASSION   OF  EVANGELISM        247 

plain  dealing.  There  is  much  practical,  sen- 
sible and  serious  exhortation  as  to  the  sins 
that  corrupt  men's  lives  and  harden  their 
hearts.  Of  rhetorical  fireworks  there  is  not 
a  trace.  We  are  less  impressed  by  the  vehe- 
mence than  by  the  calm  strength  of  them. 
Yet  certain  it  is,  that  when  this  man  preached, 
the  world  knew  that  the  hour  of  battle  had 
sounded.  Those  scenes  of  fury,  which  be- 
long now  to  English  history,  and  in  which 
Wesley's  life  was  again  and  again  in  peril, 
are  the  tribute  to  the  power  of  his  message. 
If  he  had  been  arguing  for  a  verdict  before  a 
society  of  learned  men,  he  could  hardly  have 
reasoned  more  closely,  or  employed  more 
classical  illustrations.  From  which  fact  surely 
one  lesson  of  supreme  value  may  be  drawn. 
The  evangelist,  on  whom  all  Hell  is  let  loose, 
has  yet  no  need  to  let  his  mission  down,  or 
condescend  to  base  and  unworthy  methods 
of  attack  or  of  appeal.  Such  means  do  not 
really  and  permanently  tell.  Even  as  Wesley 
was  singularly  fine  and  pure  in  controversy 
when  he  was  being  assailed  by  a  multitude 
of   scurrilous   pens,  and  pelted  with  gutter- 


248        THE   ROMANCE   OF   PREACHING 

epithets,  so,  also,  in  the  warfare  which  he 
waged  with  error  and  evil  in  almost  every 
market-place  in  the  land,  he  was  content  to 
use  the  Gospel  weapons  of  Truth  and  Love, 
and  as  the  smoke  cleared  from  the  battle-field 
it  was  seen  that  he  and  his  forces  were  in 
possession  of  the  best  strategical  positions. 

I  grant  you  that,  often  enough,  in  the  face 
of  the  granite  indifference  and  apathy  with 
which  the  preacher  is  confronted,  the  temp- 
tation to  try  the  earthquake,  the  hurricane 
and  the  explosion,  and  to  mistrust  the  still 
small  voice,  is  very  natural  and  very  great. 
But  sensationalism  does  not  win  Wesley's 
victories,  nor  ever  can.  At  the  long  last,  the 
conquests  of  the  Cross  are  seen  to  have  been 
won  by  the  old-fashioned  weapons  of  persua- 
sion, patience,  sacrifice,  courage  and  over- 
whelming sympathy,  joined  to  that  sagacity 
or  common-sense  which  in  Wesley  amounted 
to  genius,  and  that  was  the  secret  of  the  ex- 
jtraordinary  organization  which,  more  than  a 
century  after  his  death,  holds  together  for 
worship  and  service  millions  upon  millions  of 
Christian  people. 


THE  PASSION   OF  EVANGELISM        249 

If  I  do  not  attempt  any  description  of  tfie 
complementary  but  contrasted  work  of  George 
Whitefield,  it  is  because  the  characteristics  of 
his  famous  oratory  have  been  described  by  so 
many  writers.  We  may  accept  the  almost 
universal  verdict  that  for  dramatic  and  de- 
clamatory power  he  had  no  rival  in  his  own 
age,  and  no  superior  in  any  age.  Doubtless 
it  was  true,  as  Mr.  Lecky  observes,  that  he 
had  a  narrow  range  of  ideas  ;  but  it  is  also 
true,  as  the  same  historian  reminds  us,  that 
his  genius  and  disposition  suited  him  to  "  the 
position  of  a  roving  evangelist,"  that  he  was 
"adapted  for  the  boisterous  vicissitudes  of 
the  itinerant  life,"  that  he  excelled  in  impas- 
sioned religious  appeals — which  seem  never 
to  have  lost  their  force  or  their  fresh- 
ness though  repeated  hundreds  of  times 
— that  his  preaching  "  combined  almost  the 
highest  perfection  of  acting  with  the  most 
burning  fervour  of  conviction,"  that  "  his 
gestures  were  faultless  in  their  beauty  and 
propriety,"  that  he  had  "a  large  command 
of  vivid,  homely  and  picturesque  English, 
and   an    extraordinary  measure  of  the  tact 


250        THE   ROMANCE   OF   PREACHING 

which  enables  a  practiced  orator  to  adapt  him- 
self to  the  character  and  disposition  of  his 
audience,"  and  finally  that  he  possessed  "  a 
contagious  fervour  of  enthusiasm  which  like 
a  resistless  torrent  bore  down  every  obstacle." 
All  this  is  very  true,  if  very  trite.  His  art 
was  so  perfect  that  he  could  invest  "  tawdry 
and  even  ludicrous  strokes  "  of  rhetoric  with 
extraordinary  power  ;  and  it  should  be  re- 
membered that  he  set  it  before  him,  on  his 
own  admission,  to  rouse  the  passions  to  the 
highest  point,  especially  the  passions  of  love, 
hope  and  fear. 

All  these  characteristics  belong  to  the 
externals  of  his  ministry,  and  it  may  well  be 
urged  that  without  them  his  open-air 
campaign  must  have  failed  in  its  effect.  Let 
us  remember  how  Whitefield  viewed  the  op- 
portunity. To  him,  England  was  the  theatre 
of  a  great  struggle,  a  fierce  and  terrible  war, 
which  must  be  fought  out  with  every  perfec- 
tion of  armament  by  the  Christian  host  if  the 
day  was  not  to  be  lost,  and  the  soul  of  a  peo- 
ple destroyed  forever.  He  did  not  fit  him- 
self   out   with    rhetoric    and   dramatic   skill 


THE   PASSION   OF  EVANGELISM        25 1 

merely  to  entertain  the  populace.  "  By  all 
means  he  must  save  men."  If  the  arts  of 
oratory  were  necessary  that  he  might  storm 
the  consciences  of  the  democracy,  then  in 
what  better  cause  could  he  practice  them  ? 
We  may  choose  to  recall  that  men  and 
women  of  the  finest  taste  and  highest  conse- 
quence were  avowedly  his  admirers ;  that 
Garrick,  David  Hume,  Benjamin  Franklin, 
Lord  Chesterfield  and  the  Countess  of  Hunt- 
ingdon came  under  the  spell  of  his  marvellous 
eloquence  ;  but  it  is  no  more  than  justice  to 
remember,  at  the  same  time,  that  it  was  not  for 
these  that  he  equipped  himself  with  so  much 
labour,  and  pursued  his  methods  with  so  much 
courage.  It  was  for  the  miners  and  the  pud- 
dlers  and  the  weavers ;  the  masses  of 
neglected  and  ignorant  artisans  and  field 
labourers,  to  whom  clergymen  and  ministers 
had  ceased  to  appeal,  and  for  whom  in  all  the 
land  there  existed  no  passionate  sympathy 
until  George  Whitefield  arose,  and  spoke  to 
them  in  a  voice  often  choked  with  tears  of 
death  in  sin,  and  life  in  Christ. 

It  is  Whitefield  who  so  pointedly  raises,  for 


252        THE   ROMANCE  OF   PREACHING 

the  Student  of  oratory  and  its  permanent 
effects,  the  problem  of  emotional  preaching. 
Mr.  Lecky  tells  us  that  "  no  talent  is  natu- 
rally more  ephemeral  than  popular  oratory." 
He  does  not  go  on  to  tell  us  that  no  talent  has 
produced  such  mighty  results.  The  man  who 
can  kindle  the  multitude,  recreate  faith  in  a 
worldly  age,  and  inspire  the  ideals  of  a  whole 
people  does  more  than  all  the  authors,  artists 
and  statesmen  put  together.  We,  in  Eng- 
land, know  perfectly  well  how  the  moral  power 
was  generated  which  in  the  early  years  of  the 
nineteenth  century  swept  the  slave-trade  from 
the  Empire,  cleansed  the  prisons,  multiplied 
the  schools,  revolutionized  the  constitution, 
and  established  a  large  measure  of  relig- 
ious equality.  All  these  reforms,  and  many 
others,  were  the  product  of  the  new  relig- 
ious life  of  the  common  people.  White- 
field  may  have  believed,  or  thought  that 
he  believed,  that  Christianity  aims  at  gath- 
ering out  of  a  lost  world  an  elect,  fit  but 
few ;  but  it  was  his  practice  and  example 
rather  than  his  dogma  that  prevailed,  and 
his  practice  was  to  make  appeal  not  to  the  few 


THE   PASSION   OF  EVANGELISM        253 

but  to  the  masses,  believing  that  the  power 
of  Christ  over  them  is  beyond  all  calculation  ; 
and  the  results,  if  they  discredited  his  Calvin- 
ism, abundantly  justified  his  evangelism. 

There  are  three  points  of  great  practical 
value  which  I  ought  to  press  home  upon  you 
before  I  close.  The  first  concerns  the  art  of 
popular  preaching  ;  the  second  concerns  the 
place  in  evangelism  of  theological  formulas  ; 
and  the  third  concerns  the  "  call "  of  the 
masses.  On  each  of  these  I  should  like  to 
say  a  very  few  words. 

(i)  Popular  preaching  has  come  to  have 
a  bad  name  among  us.  We  are  tempted  to 
pride  ourselves  on  preaching  that  is  unpopu- 
lar, and  to  assume  that  the  best  test  of  good 
preaching  is  that  it  should  empty  churches 
rather  than  fill  them.  The  man  who  draws 
and  holds  the  crowd  must,  we  presume,  be 
a  superficial  preacher,  while  the  man  who  re- 
duces his  audience,  like  Gideon's  army,  to  a 
small  and  high-souled  elect,  is  like  a  farmer 
who  has  successfully  operated  a  milk-sepa- 
rator, and  has  retained  only  the  pure  and 
rich  cream.     This  operation  on  the  part  of  a 


254       THE  ROMANCE  OF  PREACHING 

minister  is  by  no  means  uncommon,  and  is 
usually  assumed  to  be  due  to  profound  think- 
ing. I  suggest  that  we  have  come  to  the 
time  when  we  may  wisely  reconsider  this 
problem.  The  common  people  heard  our 
Lord  gladly,  and  it  is  difficult  to  pay  compli- 
ments to  ourselves,  if  they  do  not  care  to  hear 
us  at  all.  I  submit  to  you  that  in  our  reac- 
tion against  a  frothy  emotionalism,  we  have 
gone  to  the  extreme  of  impoverishing  our 
preaching  of  the  human  touch,  and  by  so  do- 
ing we  have  lost  our  power  over  the  human 
heart. 

When  I  read  our  Lord's  infinitely  moving 
lament  over  Jerusalem,  or  His  impassioned 
indignation  against  religious  hyprocrisy,  I 
marvel  that  we  can  ever  imagine  Christian 
preaching  to  be  admirable  that  is  not  deeply 
penetrated  with  emotion.  I  am  told  that 
this  sort  of  advice  does  violence  to  our  mod- 
ern temperament  and  attitude  of  mind.  To- 
day we  are  all  for  self-control.  We  think  a 
man  is  a  fool  to  "  let  himself  go."  Enthu- 
siasm is  at  a  discount ;  scepticism  is  in  the 
ascendant.     I  am  told  that  love  has   given 


THE  PASSION  OF  EVANGELISM        255 

place  to  the  science  of  eugenics  ;  and  that 
in  the  well-regulated  modern  world,  when 
the  Romanticist  and  the  Poet  have  been 
suppressed  in  the  interest  of  pure  science, 
emotion  and  imagination  will  have  no  place. 
If  this  be  so,  our  Revelation  is  still  to  the  wise, 
foolishness ;  but  it  does  not  follow  we  are  to 
surrender  to  any  so-called  scientific  school. 
At  any  rate,  if  my  protest  were  the  last  word 
ever  to  be  said  in  a  Lyman  Beecher  lecture 
in  favour  of  "  human  preaching "  and  the 
cultivation  of  the  art  of  popular  oratory,  I 
would  venture  to  say  it.  You  have  every 
chord  of  the  human  heart  to  play  on.  Surely 
the  art  of  eliciting  their  music  is  worthy  of 
your  study  and  cultivation.  Men  and 
women,  after  all  their  history  and  education, 
are  still  human  beings,  compounded  of 
laughter  and  tears,  sunshine  and  shadow. 
Humanity  is  still,  as  it  has  always  been, 
capable  of  the  heights  of  heroism,  and  the 
depths  of  shame.  Not  one  of  the  elemental 
human  passions  has  been  eradicated  by  all 
our  philosophies.  No  process  of  evolution 
has  carried  us,  or  ever  will,  beyond  their  grip. 


256        THE  ROMANCE  OF  PREACHING 

ILife  and  death  are  just  as  poignant  expe- 
riences as  in  the  early  days  of  our  race  ;  and 
/•  if  our  refinements  have  done  anything  for  us, 
they  have  made  us  more  sensitive  and  not 
more    stoical.     We   may,  of  course,  ignore 
'  these  facts,  and  assume  that  those  to  whom 
we  preach  are  above  all  things  engrossed  with 
metaphysics,  and  have  an  inward  craving  for 
the  critical  probability  that  there  were   two 
I   Isaiahs.     But  if  that  is  our  attitude  we  have 
r   I   much  to  learn.     Nobody  ought  ever  to  go 
[   into  a  pulpit  who  can  think  and  talk  about 
1  sin  and  salvation,  and  the  Cross  of  Christ, 
I  which   is  for  all  true  men  the  symbol  of  hope 
and  service,  without  profound  emotion  and 
passion. 

I  recognize  that  for  the  business  of  read- 
ing moral  essays,  disquisitions  on  ethics,  or 
treatises  on  movements  in  theology,  but  litde 
equipment  in  oratory  is  needed.  Oratory  in- 
deed is  unthinkable  apart  from  the  inspiration 
of  some  great  human  theme.  When  the 
preacher's  soul  is  blessed  with  real  vision, 
and  the  hand  of  the  Lord  his  God  is  upon 
him,  he  will  be  conscious  of  profound  unrest 


THE  PASSION  OF  EVANGELISM        257 

until  he  can  deliver  his  soul  to  those  multi- 
tudes in  the  valley  of  decision,  to  whom  his 
message  represents  the  way  of  life  and  liberty. 
Do  not  misunderstand  me.  The  order  of 
preaching  friars  must  always  be  a  catholic 
one  ;  and  there  is  room  in  it  for  the  man  of 
quiet,  thoughtful  spirit  who  delivers  to  a 
devoted  flock  his  meditations  on  the  Gospel. 
But  I  like  that  phrase  of  the  apostle  of 
Patmos,  descriptive  of  his  own  experience — 
"  He  carried  me  away  in  the  spirit."  We 
cannot  always  be  in  the  same  mood,  nor  if  it 
were  possible  would  it  be  well.  But  surely 
this  is  one  of  our  noblest  capacities — this  of 
being  transported  out  of  ourselves  by  the 
vision  of  God,  and  of  His  will,  "  carried 
away  "  by  the  rush  of  emotion,  enthusiasm 
and  imagination  to  that  lofty  standpoint 
where  we  greet  the  dawn  of  the  Day  of 
Christ's  Kingdom  on  earth  ;  and  watch  the 
Holy  City,  New  Jerusalem,  descending  out  of 
heaven  from  God.  That  is  why  I  lay  stress 
to-day  upon  the  highest  possibilities  of 
preaching.  We  are  always  being  told  that 
this  is  a  materialistic  age  ;  that  modern  in- 


258        THE  ROMANCE  OF   PREACHING 

dustrialism  has  no  soul ;  that  as  our  machines 
grow  more  human,  the  men  who  make  them 
grow  more  mechanical.  It  is  true.  And  tor 
that  very  reason  we  want  Poetry  back  again, 
and  Art,  and  Music,  and,  above  all,  the 
Prophet  who  is  the  supreme  interpreter  of  the 
spiritual. 

When  I  look  at  the  famous  portraits  of 
Whitefield,  and  conceive  him  as  he  faces  the 
multitude  under  God's  sky,  with  the  heavens 
for  sounding-board,  the  hillsides  for  meet- 
ing-house, and  some  rude  boulder  for  pulpit ; 
as  his  splendid  energy  expresses  itself  in  the 
fold  and  sweep  of  his  robes,  and  his  passion 
for  souls  in  his  kindled  countenance,  his 
flashing  eye,  and  the  tender  solemn  tones  of 
his  voice,  I  feel  as  if  this  is  the  one  thing  to 
pray  for — that  God  will  raise  up  a  new  race 
of  genuine  orators  of  the  evangel,  who  with- 
out any  unworthy  artifices  will  shake  men's 
souls  and  thrill  their  hearts. 

(2)  In  the  second  place  I  am  bound  very 
briefly  to  express  my  belief  that  theological 
formulas  will  matter  comparatively  little  in  the 
new  evangelism.     My  reason  for  saying  this 


THE  PASSION  OF  EVANGELISM        259 

is  an  historical  one.  The  two  men  who  to- 
gether were  responsible  for  the  Evangelical 
Revival  were  representatives  of  two  con- 
trasted schools  of  theology,  which  all  the 
praiseworthy  efforts  of  their  successors  have 
not  been  able  wholly  to  reconcile.  White- 
field  affirmed  with  immense  conviction  what 
Wesley  decried  with  equal  strenuousness. 
There  never  has  been  in  the  history  of 
theological  controversy,  a  deluge  of  pam- 
phlets so  virulent,  and  so  scurrilous  as  those 
with  which  their  partisans  assailed  one  an- 
other. You  might  easily  have  supposed 
that  these  antagonistic  schools  of  theologians 
would  have  neutralized  one  another,  or,  at 
least,  minimized  the  general  effect  of  their 
mutual  labours.  But  it  was  not  so.  And 
the  reason  is,  of  course,  that  in  the  mercy  of 
God  the  blunders  of  our  finite  minds  are  not 
permitted  to  prevent  His  Word  from  having 
free  course  and  being  glorified.  It  is  not 
creeds  that  bring  the  breath  of  life  back  to 
exhausted  souls,  but  faith. 

That  is  not  to  say  of  course  that  crude  and 
unworthy  teaching  about  God  or  man  may 


26o        THE   ROMANCE   OF   PREACHING 

not  produce  painful  reaction  of  an  intellectual 
sort.  This  that  I  am  saying  is  no  plea  for 
slipshod  and  shallow  thinking.  But  just  as 
the  most  profound  and  wise  theology  may 
utterly  fail  to  inspire  the  hearer  to  virtue  and 
to  faith,  apart  from  men  of  soul  and  fire  to 
believe  it  and  to  preach  it ;  so  a  theology 
that  is  greatly  inferior  in  intellectual  strength 
may  nevertheless  be  more  than  compensated 
for  by  a  preacher  whose  heart  God  hath 
touched.  It  is  faith,  faith,  faith,  that  con- 
quers the  world.  The  life  of  God  is  the 
strength  of  the  saints ;  and  it  is  the  same 
divine  life  in  Calvin  and  in  Wesley,  in  St. 
Francis  of  Assisi  and  John  Knox,  in  Jonathan 
Edwards  and  Henry  Ward  Beecher.  In 
man's  fight  for  life  as  a  spiritual  being  the 
mystic  breath  of  the  Divine  Spirit  is  more 
than  all  our  formulas. 

(3)  Lastly,  evangelism  recognizes  the  call 
of  the  masses.  Explorers  tell  us  that  there 
is  a  resistless  power  in  "  the  lure  of  the  wild." 
They  tell  us  that  after  a  taste  of  it  they  soon 
weary  of  our  tame  conventional  civilization  ; 
and  prefer  all  the  risks  and   hardships  and 


THE   PASSION   OF  EVANGELISM        26 1 

perils  of  the  wild  to  the  monotony  of  our 
unambitious  and  routine  existence.  There  is 
a  very  true  parallel  between  the  life  of  the 
explorer  and  the  life  of  the  evangelist.  The 
true  evangelist  listens  to  the  call  of  the  wild 
— that  raw,  untamed,  passionate  human  na- 
ture that  is  a  yet  unknown  and  uncultivated 
soil  but  that  has  all  the  virgin  possibilities  of 
limidess  ferdlity.  I  do  not  think  our  Lord 
had  no  feeling  of  reverence  for  the  Temple  and 
the  synagogue,  and  those  who  were  in  sin- 
cere association  with  these,  but  I  do  think 
His  soul  responded  to  the  call  of  the  wild, — 
the  churchless  multitude,  neglected,  outcast, 
uncultured,  waiting  only  for  the  ploughshare 
and  the  seed  to  become  glorious  with  the 
harvests  of  God.  To-day  we  may  well  thank 
God,  as  I  most  humbly  do,  for  our  churches. 
They  form  the  base  of  operations  for  every 
good  and  great  campaign.  But  the  cam- 
paign must  not  be  restricted  to  their  bound- 
aries. The  campaign  is  for  the  lands  beyond 
the  frontiers.  The  Church  is  still  the  home- 
land to  all  the  soldiers.  Its  patriotism  fires 
us.     The  warmth  and  joy  of  its  hearth  glow 


262        THE   ROMANCE  OF   PREACHING 

in  our  hearts  when  we  are  out  on  the  great 
adventure.  Perhaps  we  never  learn  to  love 
it  until  we  come  to  know  at  first  hand  the 
meaning  of  that  unhallowed  secularity  where 
its  atmosphere  does  not  extend.  Let  every 
preacher  resolve  he  will  be  churchman  and 
evangelist  in  one.  The  call  of  the  Church, 
and  the  call  of  the  wild  are  both  to  be  heard, 
I  think,  in  the  soul  of  every  true  ambassador 
of  Christ.  We  may  not  love  Jerusalem  less  ; 
but  the  song  of  the  pioneer  must  be  ever  in 
our  hearts  and  on  our  lips,  "  They  shall  build 
the  old  wastes — the  ancient  wilds, — they 
shall  raise  up  the  former  desolations,  they 
shall  repair  the  waste  cities, — the  civilizations 
run  to  waste, — the  desolations  of  many  gene- 
rations." 


LECTURE  VIII 

THE    ROMANCE    OF 
MODERN  PREACHING 


LECTURE  VIII 

THE  ROMANCE  OF  MODERN 
PREACHING 

THE  danger  of  lectures  that  deal 
mainly  with  the  past,  is  lest  the  final 
impression  should  be  left,  that  our 
own  time  is  in  the  nature  of  an  anti-climax  to 
the  illustrious  generations  we  have  been  pass- 
ing in  review  ;  that  the  great  gates  lead- 
ing into  the  spacious  lands  of  opportunity- 
are  all  closed,  and  that  nothing  remains  to 
us  but  some  shabby  and  petty  doors  giving 
upon  meagre  and  uninteresting  fields.  Some 
critics  speak  as  if  there  would  have  been 
no  romantic  or  heroic  chapters  in  Christian 
history,  but  for  the  grim  and  forbidding  fig- 
ures of  the  bigot  and  the  tyrant,  with  all 
their  sinister  apparatus  of  torture  and  death. 
Sermons  have  been  preached  in  celebration 
of  the  funeral  of  bigotry  ;  though  bigotry 
takes  a  deal  of  burying,  and  has  singular 
gifts  of  resurrection  after  its  obsequies  have 
265 


266        THE   ROMANCE  OF   PREACHING 

been  ostensibly  performed.  Nevertheless,  the 
arm  of  the  persecuter  has  been  so  far  short- 
ened that  we  no  longer  see  the  blackened  stake 
in  the  market-place ;  and  the  instruments 
by  which  heretics  were  put  to  the  question, 
are  regarded  as  the  evil  evidence  of  an  in- 
tolerance and  an  inhumanity  that  we  have  out- 
grown. Now  and  then,  even  in  those  days, 
our  heroes  and  heroines  suffer  death  at  the 
hands  of  those  who  know  not  what  they  do. 
Still  the  graves  of  the  self-exiled  evangelists 
of  the  Cross  multiply  in  fever-haunted  lands  ; 
and  lonely  saints  make  brotherhood  with 
lepers,  or  burn  out  for  Christ  among  savages 
on  remote  islands  or  in  the  dark  African  in- 
terior. But  apart  altogether  from  the  fasci- 
nation of  incidents  such  as  these,  which  lend 
themselves  to  picturesque  descriptions,  I  am 
determined  to  persuade  you  in  this  closing 
lecture  that  the  work  of  the  preacher  in 
modern  times  remains  as  romantic  and  dra- 
matic as  ever. 

The  question  is  whether  we  believe  in  the 
mission  of  the  Christian  prophet  as  Wagner, 
let  us  say,  believed  in  the  mission  of  Music, 


ROMANCE  OF   MODERN   PREACHING     267 

or  G.  F.  Watts  in  the  mission  of  Art.  Of  the 
latter,  as  you  may  remember,  a  modern  poet 
wrote  these  fine  lines  by  way  of  epitaph  : 

"  He  knew  her  destined  mission,  dared  to  hail 
The  place  assigned  her  in  the  heavenly  plan, 
Reader  of  visions  hid  behind  the  veil ; 
Elect  interpreter  of  God  to  man." 

That  is  no  more  than  to  say  that  George 
Frederick  Watts  was  an  artist  with  the  soul  of 
a  prophet ;  and  that  with  his  canvas  for  pulpit 
he  preached,  and  will  preach  as  long  as  his 
pictures  last,  sermons  that  prove  him  to  be 
verily  an  "  elect  interpreter  of  God  to  man." 
In  whatever  medium  he  works,  the  man  who 
has  the  soul  of  the  prophet  will  fulfill  the 
same  mission.  His  will  be  the  skill  to  read 
the  "  visions  hid  behind  the  veil."  He  will 
keep  alive  the  faith  and  the  knowledge  that 
there  is  a  world  of  reality  behind  the  veil. 
Thus  he  will  fulfill  his  destiny  to  deliver  his 
generation  from  the  dark  influences  of  a 
materialistic  science,  and  to  restore  Faith, 
Hope  and  Love  as  the  guiding  and  govern- 
ing realities  of  life.  Let  me  repeat  what  I 
have   said   before — that   if    the   preacher  is 


268        THE   ROMANCE  OF   PREACHING 

doomed  to  disappear  as  rationalism  and  ma- 
terialism triumph,  then  the  poet,  the  artist  and 
the  musician  will  disappear  in  like  manner  at 
the  same  time  and  for  the  same  reason. 

But  now  let  us  ask  ourselves,  what  it  is 
about  our  high  calling  that  gives  it  a  peren- 
nial fascination  and  glory  ?  For  the  only  thing 
that  can  kill  preaching  is,  that  we  should  lose 
the  sense  of  its  majesty  and  unique  author- 
ity. The  first  thing  that  I  would  say  is,  that 
pi^eaching  can  never  lose  its  place  so  long  as 
the  mystery  and  wonder  of  the  human  spirit 
remain.  For  we  are  dealing  with  that  which 
is  the  source  of  all  the  amazing  interest  of 
life.  Man  is  a  creature  mystically  elect  to 
strange  conflicts  and  adventures  of  mind  and 
soul.  He  stands  alone  in  God's  august  crea- 
tion, in  that  he  knows  the  exaltation  of  spiri- 
tual vision,  and  the  humiliation  of  remorse  for 
sin.  He  has  inexplicable  beatitudes,  and  as 
inexplicable  sorrows.  His  mysterious  history 
is  blood-stained  and  tragic  ;  but  it  is  lighted 
everywhere  with  almost  incredible  heroism. 
Robert  Louis  Stevenson  would  persuade  us 
that  personality  is  dual,  and  that  every  soul 


ROMANCE   OF   MODERN   PREACHING     269 

among  us  is  half  angel  and  half  devil.  Cer- 
tain it  is  that  underneath  purely  worldly  exteri- 
ors, dwell  unsuspected  philanthropies  and  be- 
nevolences. Sordid  and  callous  speculators 
whose  ambition  seems  to  be  to  rig  markets, 
or  inflate  and  depress  shares  at  will,  have  pure 
affections  and  holy  memories  lying  detached 
from  their  daily  business  existence,  like  a 
ring  of  lilies  around  some  foul  morass.  Con- 
versely, some  men  and  women  to  whom  the 
world  bows  down  in  respect  and  esteem, 
carry  with  them  the  memory  of  secret  sins, 
the  consequences  of  which  all  their  zeal  can- 
not overtake. 

The  homes  of  the  poor  are  the  dwelling- 
places  of  romance.  Not  a  tenement  stair- 
case that  does  not  echo  to  the  feet  of  Love 
and  Hope,  and  all  the  attendant  train  of 
ministering  angels  ;  while  Jealousy,  Envy  and 
Despair  and  their  evil  brood  are  to  be  met 
there  likewise.  I  venture  to  say  it  is  the  ex- 
perience of  all  those  who  visit  sympathetically 
among  the  poor,  that  they  rarely  come  across 
any  house  where,  in  some  corner  or  other, 
they  do  not  distinguish  the  footprints  of  the 


I270  THE  ROMANCE  OF  PREACHING 
Son  of  Man  ;  He  makes  the  place  of  His 
feet  glorious.  The  more  we  know  of  life  the 
more  we  discover  what  compensations  and 
alleviations  are  due  to  the  divine  capacities  of 
the  human  spirit.  The  child  of  poverty  sits 
in  some  corner  of  the  ill-furnished  room. 
She  is  reading  the  story  of  "  Ivanhoe,"  and 
following  breathlessly  the  adventures  of  the 
stainless  Knight.  For  a  while  she  is  not  in 
that  wretched  home  at  all.  For  her  the  lists 
are  set,  and  the  lances  coiiiched,  and  the 
horses  caparisoned.  To  her  knights  bow,  and 
courtiers  bend,  and  grand  ladies  smile.  For- 
gotten are  hunger  and  hardship  and  the 
dreary  outlook.  She  too  is  "  carried  away  in 
the  spirit."  How  our  hearts  would  leap  if 
we  could  really  read  all  that  lies  behind  the 
faces  that  confront  us  so  enigmatically  on 
the  Sunday.     What  of  their  faiths  and  their 

j  doubts  ;  their  ambitions  and  dissatisfactions  ; 

i  their  yearnings  and  wistfulness — and  all 
covered  with  so  impenetrable  a  mask  that 
except  in  rare  cases  of  confidence  their  near- 
est and  dearest  friends  are  not  permitted  to 
penetrate  beneath  the  surface  to  the  intimacy 


ROMANCE  OF   MODERN   PREACHING     27 1 

of  their  real  life  ?  Yet  suddenly,  at  any  mo- 
ment, that  may  happen  which  will  break  up 
all  reserve,  and  bring  the  strong  man  to  you 
groping  blindly  for  light,  pleading  for  help 
and  comfort  like  a  little  child.  For  the  hour 
Cometh  to  all  when  it  is  Jesus  Christ  or  noth- 
ing ;  and  all  the  dollars  in  America  cannot 
pay  the  passage-money  across  the  inevitable 
sea. 

We  preachers  live  always  in  the  conscious 
presence  of  the  supreme  mysteries.  We  deal 
with  men  and  women,  many  of  whom  are 
afraid  to  face  them.  It  is  our  business  to 
know  what  doubt  and  grief  and  death  can 
do  ;  it  is  our  business  to  prove  what,  given 
the  Gospel,  doubt  and  grief  and  death  can- 
not do.  But  I  should  delude  you  if  I  were 
to  suggest,  that  this  sacred  task  is  to  any  of 
us  at  any  time  an  easy  one.  The  first  inci- 
dent in  my  own  ministry  that  I  vividly  re- 
member, was  connected  with  a  bright  young 
girl  who  on  her  twenty-first  birthday  was  en- 
joying a  picnic-party  on  the  Thames.  Her 
lover  went  to  the  side  of  the  launch  to  get  a 
camp-stool  for  a  friend,  tripped  and  fell  into 


272        THE   ROMANCE   OF  PREACHING 

the  river  and  was  drowned  before  her  eyes. 
In  a  moment  Hfe's  happiest  pageantry  turned 
to  darl<:est  tragedy.  Well  do  I  remember 
being  asked  to  go  and  see  this  stricken  one, 
and  I  shall  never  forget  pacing  up  and  down 
the  street  outside  the  house  with  the  drawn 
blinds,  trying  to  muster  up  courage  to  go  in. 
Why  had  no  one  told  me  that  the  Christian 
ministry  was  like  this  ?  I  can  see  now  in  the 
dark  room  the  white  marble  face  as  of  one 
changed  to  stone  ;  1  can  see  her  holding  out 
hands  to  me  for  faith,  when  I  was  bankrupt 
of  my  own  1 

It  is  easy  to  stand  up  in  a  pulpit,  and  to  a 
listening  crowd  preach  the  truth  of  Christian- 
ity ;  but  the  preacher  has  to  say  something 
that  will  count  for  faith  and  comfort,  when 
souls  are  tortured  by  sorrow  almost  to  the 
last  agony.  Have  you  taken  a  walk  in  the 
spring-time,  and  felt  disposed  to  take  your 
shoes  from  of!  your  feet  before  the  miracle  of 
a  flowering  thorn?  What  a  little  while  ago 
was  a  bunch  of  black  stems,  with  forbidding 
spikes  and  thorns,  is  now  a  glorious  mass  of 
gay  flov/ers,  shedding  fragrance  all  around. 


ROMANCE   OF  MODERN   PREACHING     273 

What  a  Divine  touch  it  is  that  can  make  the 
thorn  to  flower,  and  express  its  inner  Hie  in 
such  rare  grace  and  scene !  Have  we  a  like 
Divine  secret  to  turn  the  thorns  of  life  to 
beauty  and  sweetness  ?  Let  no  man  venture 
into  the  ministry  without  that  knowledge. 
It  is  the  veritable  key  that  opens  the  dungeon 
of  Despair. 

The  men  who  interest  and  fascinate  us 
most  are  they  who  illustrate  the  wonder  of 
the  human  spirit,  and  teach  us  preachers 
with  what  potentialities  we  have  to  deal. 
Man's  uniqueness  in  the  universe  lies  in  the 
wrestlings  that  are  not  with  flesh  and  blood, 
the  struggle  for  existence  that  is  not  physical 
but  spiritual,  the  conflicts  with  principalities 
and  powers  that  are  invisible  but  real.  Bun- 
yan  suffered  much  from  external  persecutions, 
but  no  one  who  has  read  his  autobiography 
can  possibly  believe  that  his  physical  suffer- 
ings in  prison,  were  at  all  comparable  to  his 
agony  of  mind  and  spirit,  when  doubts  threat- 
ened the  faith  that  was  the  very  breath  of 
life  to  him.  Cromwell  knew  the  pains  and 
hardships  of  the  battle-field  and  the  sorrows 


274       THE   ROMANCE  OF   PREACHING 

that  scorn  and  hatred  can  inflict ;  but  his 
greatest  conflicts  were  in  the  spirit,  and  his 
hardest  fights  were  with  himself  and  his  own 
passionate  temper  and  disposition.  Luther 
tasted  to  the  full  the  cup  of  tribulation  and 
anxiety  ;  but  you  must  read  his  commentaries 
to  discover  that  the  fiercest  war  he  waged  was 
not  with  the  Church  of  Rome,  but  with  the 
treachery  of  his  own  heart  and  will. 

You  will  ask  yourselves  whether  such  men 
as  these  are  alone  in  their  mysterious  strife,  or 
whether  it  is  in  some  degree  appointed  to  us 
all.  What  means  this  exercise  of  the  mind 
and  soul  in  the  problems  of  faith  ?  Have  we 
not  problems  enough  of  a  more  practical  sort  ? 
Why  is  mankind  thus  tormented  with  spiritual 
anxieties  ?  Why,  indeed,  if  the  sceptic  philos- 
ophy of  to-day  be  true  which  reduces  all  faith 
to  illusion,  and  spiritual  vision  to  the  agita- 
tion of  certain  nerve-centres !  By  that  in- 
terpretation, the  noblest  chapters  in  biog- 
raphy are  the  record  of  incredible  folly  and 
stupendous  tragedy.  These  agonies  of  the 
higher  life,  that  mark  the  progress  of  man 
with  drops  of  bloody  sweat,  that  distinguish 


ROMANCE  OF  MODERN  PREACHING     275 

all  his  pilgrimage  through  the  valley  of  hu- 
miliation and  the  shadow  of  death — what  are 
they  but  the  proofs  of  the  divinity  of  the  hu- 
man spirit,  and  its  struggles  in  the  grip  of  the 
consciousness  of  its  destiny,  and  of  the  sub- 
lime imperative  of  faith  ? 

The  second  thing  I  would  say  to  you  is, 
that  amid  all  changes  of  thought  and  phrase 
the  wojider  of  conversio7i  remains,  to  be  the 
supreme  joy  and  glory  of  the  preacher.  A 
congregation  gathered  in  the  name  of  Christ, 
and  prepared  by  prayer  for  that  message 
which  is  the  supreme  call  to  life,  is  to  me  a 
momentous  assembly.  It  is  the  arena  where 
God  and  Self  fight  out  stupendous  duels.  It 
furnishes  an  atmosphere  in  which  anything 
may  happen.  At  any  moment  Saul  may 
come  to  his  crisis  and  the  new  Paul  be  born. 
For  our  Gospel  is  not  the  survival  of  the  fit ; 
but  the  revival  of  the  unfit.  And  here  in  the 
society  of  Christ,  those  divine  forces  are 
leagued  and  focussed  which  decide  the  des- 
tinies of  individuals,  and  even  of  nations. 
Within  that  congregation  men  are  being 
braced  up  for  big  renunciations,  and  sacri- 


2/6        THE   ROMANCE  OF   PREACHING 

ficial  enterprises.  The  voice  from  the  pul- 
pit is  the  ally  of  the  trembling  and  even 
fainting  soul,  that  is  at  the  point  of  giv- 
ing up  the  battle  for  virtue  and  righteous- 
ness. Lame  consciences  struggle  to  their 
feet  again.  Nerveless  wills  are  stiffened  and 
strengthened.  It  is  as  if  a  wave  of  pure 
ozone  passed  over  the  breathers  of  some  ex- 
hausted air.  You  feel  the  stir  of  hope. 
Feeble  and  enervated  spirits  drink  the  elixir 
of  life,  and  are  conscious  of  recovery  of  tone 
and  health.  The  tonic  air  from  the  hills  of 
God  works  its  miracle  of  rejuvenation,  and 
faith  is  born  again. 

There  are  so  many  sorts  of  conversion. 
It  is  conversion  when  the  faithless  soul  be- 
lieves ;  and  it  is  conversion  when  a  little 
faith  becomes  a  larger  faith.  It  is  conver- 
sion when  bad  men  become  good  men  ;  and 
it  is  conversion  when  good  men  become 
better  men.  It  is  conversion  when  the  hands 
that  hang  down  are  lifted  up ;  and  when  the 
lame  and  erring  feet  are  turned  back  into  the 
way.  It  is  conversion  when  the  business 
standards   of   the   world  are  exchanged   for 


ROMANCE   OF   MODERN   PREACHING     277 

higher  and  more  human  standards ;  and 
when  the  decision  to  do  the  brave  and 
honourable  thing  forces  itself  within  a 
worldly  mind.  While  the  preacher  is  at 
work,  any  one  and  all  of  these  changes  may 
take  place.  If  he  believes  in  his  business, 
and  in  the  cooperation  of  the  Divine  Spirit, 
he  expects  great  events  to  happen.  No 
service  can  ever  fall  to  the  dead  level  of  the 
commonplace.  Every  hour  spent  within  that 
atmosphere  of  faith,  beneath  the  spell  of 
Christ's  presence  and  personality,  is  charged 
with  mystic  feeling. 

My  own  personal  belief  is  that  we  do  not 
realize,  as  we  might,  the  possibility  of  sudden 
conversions.  When  we  read  the  story  of 
Henry  Barrows,  who  was  one  of  the  founders 
of  modern  Congregationalism,  passing  down 
the  Strand  in  a  wild  mood,  and  entering  a 
church  to  scoff,  and  remaining  to  pray,  pass- 
ing as  Lord  Bacon  said  "  at  one  leap  "  from 
a  libertine  youth  to  "  preciseness  of  conduct," 
we  do  not  doubt  the  story,  and  all  Barrows' 
after  life  until  the  day  of  his  martyrdom  was 
a  witness  to  its  reality.     But   who  can  ex- 


278        THE   ROMANCE  OF  PREACHING 

plain  that  magic  "  leap "  of  the  spirit  from 
dissoluteness  to  uprightness,  and  from  the 
darkness  of  doubt  to  the  light  of  faith  ?  Was 
such  an  experience  possible  only  in  days  of 
intellectual  renaissance,  or  moral  revival? 
Is  it  too  much  to  hope  that  the  assembly 
of  praying  and  believing  souls,  and  the  wit- 
ness of  God's  ambassador,  may  still  lay  a 
sacred  spell  upon  the  soul  ?  In  the  biography 
of  one,  who  even  in  our  tolerant  nineteenth 
century  suffered  imprisonment  in  England 
for  conscience'  sake,  and  wrote  in  his  prison  a 
history  of  America,  it  is  told  how  in  his  care- 
less youth  he  was  arrested  by  the  preacher's 
message ;  and  when,  at  the  close  of  the 
sermon,  the  congregation  began  to  sing  the 
quaint  old  hymn 

"  If  Jesus  is  yours,  you  have  a  true  friend ; 
His  goodness  endures  the  same  to  the  end. 
Though  pleasures  may  tarry  and  comforts  decline 
He  cannot  miscarry,  His  aid  is  divine," 

"  such  was  the  emotion  I  experienced,"  he 
says,  "  that  I  cried  out  before  them  all — '  Jesus 
is  mine  I '  "  That  experience  was  one  on 
which  he  never  went  back  ;   and  the  Pres- 


ROMANCE   OF   MODERN   PREACHING     279 

ence   he  realized  then  and  there  lighted  in 
later  days  his  prison  cell. 

But  my  question  is  whether  we  have  lost 
the  capacity  to  force  careless  and  worldly 
hearers  to  review  their  life  ?  Possibly  if  your 
children  of  body  were  suddenly  to  rise  up 
and  make  use  of  some  such  exclamation  as 
I  have  indicated,  you  would  call  in  the  family 
physician,  and  ask  him  whether  he  thought 
it  was  the  liver  or  the  nerves.  The  very  pos- 
sibility of  those  searching  spiritual  experiences 
which  shake  life  to  its  centre  seems  so  re- 
mote to  most  of  us,  that  it  can  hardly  be  said 
to  come  within  our  consciousness.  Yet  there 
is  not  one  of  us  who  does  not  know  that, 
historically,  these  sudden  illuminations  have 
often  marked  the  birth-hour  of  new  eras  of 
human  progress.  I  have  never  thought  that 
John  Wesley  was  a  very  likely  subject  for 
abrupt  mental  or  spiritual  change  ;  for  in 
many  ways  he  was  compact  of  ecclesiastical 
prejudices.  Yet  at  that  little  Moravian  room 
in  Aldersgate  Street,  when  suddenly  he  be- 
came conscious  of  that  strange  inward 
warmth    and    light   of   which   he   wrote   so 


28o       THE   ROMANCE  OF   PREACHING 

simply  and  nobly,  Mr.  Lecky  tells  us  a 
new  chapter  in  English  history  was  opened, 
and,  I  may  add,  one  of  the  most  fruitful  of  all 
chapters. 

Those  ministers,  if  such  there  be,  who  do 
not  believe  in  these  swift  crises  in  man's 
intellectual  and  spiritual  life,  are  those  who 
are  still  the  victims  of  the  false  view  of  time, 
and  who  have  not  yet  realized  with  what 
freight  of  significance  these  flying  minutes 
may  be  laden.  This  belongs  to  the  romance 
of  our  opportunity,  that  so  much  destiny  may 
be  crowded  into  so  brief  an  occasion.  The 
surgeon  may  make  careful  preparations,  but 
how  deft  and  swift  is  the  critical  work  when 
the  cataract  has  at  last  to  be  removed  from 
the  eye.  The  miracle  of  spiritual  sight-giv- 
ing is  swifter  still.  The  flash  of  a  thought — 
who  can  measure  the  duration  of  it  ?  The 
glow  of  a  new-born  affection — who  can  esti- 
mate the  length  of  time  of  its  origin  ?  The 
outreach  of  the  soul  in  faith  towards  its 
Saviour — by  what  principles  can  you  judge 
if  it  be  swift  or  slow  ?  All  that  we  know  is 
that  God  can  do  His  most  amazing  work  on 


ROMANCE  OF   MODERN   PREACHING     28 1 

human  souls  with  a  rapidity  that  even  to 
think  of  dazzles  us.  We  have  ceased  to  re- 
peat, and  perhaps  to  believe,  the  old  lines : 

<<  Between  the  saddle  and  the  ground 
I  mercy  sought,  and  mercy  found." 

But  no  transition  of  thought  will  ever  des- 
troy the  inherent  truth  and  beauty  of  the 
memorable  sentence  in  Hawthorne's  "  Blithe- 
dale  Romance,"  describing  the  suicide  of 
Zenobia,  *'  the  fleeting  moment  after  Zenobia 
sank  into  the  dark  pool — when  her  breath 
was  gone,  and  her  soul  at  her  lips — was  as 
long,  in  its  capacity  of  God's  infinite  for- 
giveness, as  the  lifetime  of  the  world." 

Again,  and  in  the  same  connection,  let  me 
remind  you  that  the  preacher  is  always  living 
through  the  romance  of  the  spring-tide.  The 
spring-tide  is  the  time  of  mystic  changes ; 
when  unpromising  and  unattractive  seeds 
and  bulbs  are  clothed  upon  with  a  miracu- 
lous raiment  of  loveliness.  It  is  the  time 
when  myriads  of  unsuspected  germs  of  life 


282        THE   ROMANCE  OF   PREACHING 

break  forth  into  living  green,  and  array  them- 
selves in  gay  and  glistering  garments.  It  is 
the  time  when  the  soft  compelling  breath  of 
spring  touches  the  withered  and  decaying 
trunks  of  ancient  trees,  and  the  magic  sap 
travels  up  their  gnarled  and  knotted  frames 
and  crowns  them  once  again  with  glory  of 
leaf  and  fruit.  It  is  the  time  when  the  shep- 
herd and  the  labourer  find  their  pathways  on 
field  and  hillside  brave  with  shining  flowers. 
It  is  the  time  when  even  the  slum  child's 
seeds  in  a  broken  flower-pot  on  a  rusty  bal- 
cony, where  the  rays  of  the  sun  are  rare 
visitors,  answer  to  the  secret  call  to  life  and 
put  forth  bloorn  and  fragrance.  All  this, 
God  help  us,  we  take  for  granted ;  and  our 
modern  souls  are  too  full  of  the  notion  that 
it  is  scientifically  explicable  to  surrender  to 
the  simple  imperishable  marvel  and  rapture 
of  it.  But  we  preachers  have  yet  to  learn 
that  the  greatest  thing  God  ever  does,  is  not 
when  He  spins  His  worlds  in  space,  or  re- 
generates the  face  of  nature  by  the  annual 
miracle  of  spring,  but  when  human  hearts 
cry  out  with  unspeakable  joy,  "  As  for  our 


ROMANCE   OF   MODERN   PREACHING     283 

transgressions  Thou  shalt  purge  them  away." 
The  Hand  that  can  reach  to  the  secret 
springs  of  Hfe,  and  purify  them,  washing 
the  stain  from  the  conscience,  and  cleansing 
the  imagination  of  its  pollutions,  is  engaged 
in  performing  the  most  amazing  miracle  in 
time.  In  the  true  church  it  is  always  spring- 
time. From  January  to  December  is  one  sea- 
son of  regeneration.  Revival  is  often  thought 
of  as  spasmodic  and  occasional ;  but  that  is 
our  fault.  It  is  normal.  The  Resurrection 
time  is  not  at  Easter  alone.  There  is  not  a 
moment  of  any  day,  in  any  year,  when  we 
may  not  rise  with  Christ  into  newness  of  life, 
and  walk  in  His  ways  with  transfigured 
spirits.  All  this  goes  to  make  up  the  charm, 
the  fascination,  the  rapture,  the  romance  of 
the  ministry. 

The  third  point  that  I  would  emphasize  is, 
that  we  are  manifestly  on  the  eve  of  new 
applications  of  Christ'' s  teaching,  which  will 
revive  the  interest  of  the  people  in  Christianity 
to  a  surprising  degree.  One  of  the  most 
remarkable  features  in  the  history  of  Chris- 
tian progress  during  the  past  few  years  in 


284        THE   ROMANCE   OF  PREACHING 

my  ov/n  country,  has  been  the  creation  of  a 
new  organization  of  a  very  simple  character 
called  "  The  Brotherhood  Movement."  It 
has  attracted  to  itself  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  men  ;  and  the  secret  of  its  attraction  is 
twofold.  Firstly,  it  presents  for  their  ac- 
ceptance a  very  simple  faith,  and  secondly 
it  brings  them  to  close  quarters  with  certain 
giant  social  evils  which  we  of  the  churches 
have  ignored  too  long.  It  may  seem  to 
some  of  you  incredible,  but  it  is  literally 
true,  that  it  came  as  a  revelation  to  multi- 
tudes of  men  that  Christianity  had  anything 
to  say  about  poverty  more  than  that  all  good 
Christian  people  ought  to  be  charitable  to 
the  poor.  Meanwhile,  the  poor  themselves 
were  inscribing  on  their  banners  "  Justice  not 
Charity,"  and  when  Christianity  was  care- 
fully examined  the  surprising  discovery  was 
made  that  Christ  Jesus  and  His  apostles  had 
much  to  say  about  Righteousness  and 
Justice,  and  comparatively  little  to  say  about 
the  duty  of  being  charitable,  save  as  it  was 
included  in  the  larger  ideal. 

The  young  preachers  of  recent  years  have 


ROMANCE   OF  MODERN   PREACHING     285 

explored  the  contents  of  the  word  "  Right- 
eousness," with  the  enthusiasm  of  pioneers 
opening  up  rich  and  fertile  lands  for  the  in- 
heritance of  the  future.  Something  has  been 
happening  even  within  the  academic  borders 
of  our  colleges.  Men  have  been  facing  life 
as  it  is,  and  bringing  it  to  the  light  of  Christ. 
The  social  economist  has  invaded  our  quiet 
sanctuaries  of  religious  thought  with  his  dis- 
turbing facts  and  figures ;  and  our  young 
men  have  seen  visions.  The  new  compulsion 
has  driven  them  down  to  the  over-crowded 
areas  where  the  disinherited  of  civilization 
make  shift  to  exist;  and  the  result  has 
been  that  unique  personal  experience  which 
changes  scientific  statistics  into  human  facts. 
Is  any  one  surprised  that  a  new  note  can 
be  detected  in  our  preaching?  Does  any 
one  marvel  that  young  prophets  are  flinging 
down  their  challenge  to  society ;  and  that 
features  of  industrialism  which  have  been 
too  long  accepted  as  inevitable  are  to-day 
the  objects  of  a  fiery  arraignment  by  men 
who  are  looking  at  them  through  eyes 
which    Christ  has  purged  and  enlightened  ? 


286        THE  ROMANCE  OF  PREACHING 

We  are  beginning  to  believe  things  which 
would  have  appalled  our  ancestors.  We  are 
beginning  to  believe  that  poverty  need  not 
exist ;  and  that  the  restrictions  upon  human 
life  and  happiness,  due  to  poverty,  may  be 
abolished.  We  see  in  the  near  future  an 
almost  indefinite  elevation  of  the  standard  of 
living ;  and  we  throw  the  whole  authority  of 
Christianity  into  the  scales  in  favour  of  the 
two  great  modern  ideals,  that  work  shall  be 
equitably  remunerated,  and  that  wealth  shall 
be  equitably  distributed. 

After  all  it  is  not  strange.  Great  causes 
always  create  a  race  of  prophets.  The 
watchword  of  the  past  century  was  Freedom. 
What  orators  the  passion  for  Freedom 
created  in  this  great  land !  Aye,  and  what 
martyrs  for  Freedom  it  made !  The  watch- 
word of  our  new  century  is  Justice.  It  will 
create  as  splendid  an  army  of  prophets ;  and 
it  may  very  well  be  that  before  the  victory  is 
won,  men  and  women  will  have  to  buy  the 
new  inheritance  at  a  great  price.  But  buy 
it  they  will  ;  for  the  master  passion  in  the 
breasts  of  the  noblest  of  our  young  men  is 


ROMANCE   OF   MODERN   PREACHING     287 

that  the  will  of  the  Father  shall  be  done  "  on 
earth  as  it  is  in  heaven." 

You  will  let  me  emphasize  here  a  thought 
that,  familiar  as  it  is,  must  win  an  entrance 
into  all  your  minds  if  you  really  mean  preach- 
ing. Knowledge  should  be  great  wealth. 
But  even  as  Mr.  Ruskin  used  to  teach  that 
only  such  of  our  possessions  as  we  well  and 
truly  use  are  well  for  us,  or  wealth  ;  so  it  is 
with  our  treasures  of  knowledge.  They  only 
become  mental  wealth  as  they  are  efficiently 
and  unselfishly  used.  Even  the  mere  knowl- 
edge of  Scripture  may  prove  an  arch  deceiver. 
To  know  the  names  and  the  dates  of  the 
kings  of  Israel  and  Judah,  is  not  necessarily 
to  be  a  religious  man  ;  any  more  than  to  be 
able  to  answer  Dr.  Watts'  catechism  with  all 
the  proof  texts,  makes  the  youthful  expert  a 
true  theologian.  Science  to-day  is  always 
with  us,  deluging  us  with  statistics.  Many 
a  man  has  sought  a  reputation  for  philan- 
thropy on  the  strength  of  his  ability  to  quote 
columns  of  social  facts.  If  your  young  stu- 
dent of  medical  and  surgical  science  can 
label  every  bone  in  your  anatomy,  and  dis- 


288        THE   ROMANCE  OF   PREACHING 

course  learnedly  on  the  function  of  every 
vital  nerve,  vein  or  tissue  ;  if  his  knowledge 
of  the  scientific  facts  of  the  human  organism 
is  encyclopaedic,  he  may,  nevertheless,  be  as 
far  removed  from  being  a  true  prophet  in  his 
own  sphere,  as  some  dull  and  heavy  bookman 
is  from  being  a  great  teacher.  But  if  your 
student  of  medicine  and  surgery  be  inspired 
by  a  noble  passion  for  humanity ;  if  he  is 
ambitious  to  be  able  to  keep  the  breadwinner 
well  for  his  work,  to  sustain  the  mother  in 
the  hour  of  motherhood,  to  cherish  child- 
hood for  the  sake  of  its  God-given  possibili- 
ties, then  he  is  in  the  way  of  becoming  a 
very  prophet  of  health,  and  a  living  exponent 
of  the  great  saying  of  Paul  that  love  re- 
joiceth  in  the  truth.  Just  in  the  same  way 
the  mere  accumulated  facts  as  to  human  life 
may  produce  a  scholar  rather  than  a  seer. 
All  the  social  statistics  ever  compiled  in  the 
new  sociological  laboratories  may  only  prove 
an  incubus  upon  the  mind,  and  a  darkening 
of  counsel.  I  have  known  parliaments,  as 
well  as  churches,  as  intimidated  by  statistics 
as  the  ten  craven-hearted  spies  were  cowed 


ROMANCE  OF  MODERN  PREACHING     289 

by  the  walled  cities  of  Canaan  and  the  stature 
of  the  sons  of  the  Anakim.  There  has  come 
the  ringing  cry  of  some  one  with  the  divine 
genius  of  faith,  "  Let  us  go  up  against  them, 
for  we  are  well  able  to  overcome  them,"  and 
somehow  the  walls  of  Jericho  have  fallen,  and 
impossibilities  have  melted  away  like  the 
mists  of  morning.  So  we  are  beginning  to 
see,  beneath  the  baptism  of  our  new  Pente- 
cost, that  our  vast  inexorable  problems,  com- 
pounded of  prejudices,  vested  interests,  and 
ancient  wrongs  are  by  no  means  as  impreg- 
nable as  they  look.  But  they  constitute  a 
supreme  appeal  to  faith,  and  to  what  I  may 
call  Christian  patriotism. 

The  preacher  who  is  going  forth  unto  the 
battle-field  to-day  for  the  kingdom  of  God  on 
earth,  will  enter  the  fray  to  hearkening  strains 
of  music.  The  Church  of  Christ  to-day  does 
not  despair  of  calling  into  existence  a  Chris- 
tian civilization.  It  refuses  to  acquiesce  in 
the  permanence  of  those  social  vices  and  so- 
cial wrongs  that  have  entrenched  themselves 
so  deeply  even  under  the  visible  authority  of 
the  Cross.     There  is  arising  an  army  of  young 


290        THE   ROMANCE   OF   PREACHING 

knights  of  Christ  who  have  taken  sacra- 
mental vows,  that  none  of  their  brethren  shall 
have  to  live  in  the  future  under  conditions 
that  are  fatal  alike  to  physical  health  and  to 
even  a  moderate  standard  of  chastity  and 
honour.  They  have  vowed  that  the  cruel 
exigencies  of  a  merciless  competition  shall 
not  always  kill  the  truth  and  self-respect  of 
those  who  are  taken  in  its  toils.  They  are 
resolved  that  the  progress  of  humanity  shall 
be  something  better  and  nobler  than  an  un- 
relieved struggle  for  existence ;  and  men 
something  diviner  than 

"  Dragons  of  the  prime 
That  bare  each  other  in  their  slime." 

They  are  resolved — "highly  resolved,"  as 
Lincoln  used  to  say — that  the  slum  and  the 
i  sweater  shall  vanish  from  the  face  of  this 
I  earth  which  Christ's  feet  once  trod,  and  His 
I  deathless  love  forever  sanctifies.  They  are 
\  resolved  that  men  and  women  shall  not  al- 
*  ways  be  subjected  to  the  legion  of  tempta- 
I  tions  that  centre  in  the  gaming  hell  and  the 
I  saloon.  They  are  resolved  that  human  con- 
ditions of  labour  and  life,  in  the  factory  and 


ROMANCE  OF  MODERN   PREACHING     291 

on  the  land,  shall  be  substituted  for  conditions 
which  made  health  and  happiness  almost  im- 
possible. In  other  words,  they  have  caught 
the  glow  of  the  idealism  of  the  great  Jewish 
prophets  who  saw  in  vision  the  Messianic 
age,  and  hailed  it  as  the  destined  day  of  God. 
I  am  not  here  to  urge  you  to  identify  your- 
selves with  any  particular  school  of  economics 
or  politics.  I  am  one  of  those  who  can 
honestly  claim,  that  I  can  count  the  political 
sermons  I  have  preached  in  twenty-five  years 
on  the  fingers  of  one  hand.  But  that  has 
been  because  I  have  taken  other  and  more 
unconventional  opportunities  of  dealing  with 
great  national  issues,  as  they  have  arisen  in 
my  own  country.  But  I  hold  that  that  man's 
soul  is  dead,  and  he  is  thereby  incapacitated 
for  the  office  of  preacher,  who  is  insensitive  to 
the  great  human  movements  that  are  advanc- 
ing in  every  land,  and  that  have  for  their  ob- 
ject the  throwing  wide  open  of  the  doors  of  op- 
portunity to  all  citizens,  so  as  to  make  possible 
for  every  worker  a  decent  competence,  and 
for  every  child  the  fullest  measure  of  culture 
of  which  it  is  capable.     Possibly  some  of  the 


292        THE   ROMANCE   OF   PREACHING 

things  that  I  am  venturing  to  say  to  you,  are 
leading  me  on  to  dangerous  ground.  If  so,  I 
must  take  the  risk.  This  is  not  a  plea  for 
any  special  set  of  opinions  ;  but  it  is  a  plea 
for  wide  and  generous  social  sympathies,  and 
such  clear  and  courageous  outlook  as  gave 
to  the  Hebrew  prophets  the  religious  leader- 
ship of  their  generation. 

My  fourth  point  is,  that  over  this  world 
of  military  camps,  bristling  frotttiers  and 
armoured  fleets,  there  is  being  heard  to-day 
with  new  insistence  the  ever-romantic  strains 
of  the  angels^  song  of  Peace  and  Goodivill. 
The  Gospel  has  a  twofold  mission.  It  is  ours 
to  break  down  the  barriers  between  man  and 
God,  and  it  is  ours  to  break  down  the  barriers 
between  man  and  man.  Nobody  can  calcu- 
late the  effect  on  the  life  of  this  world,  if 
every  minister  of  Christ  were  to  know  him- 
self charged  with  full  authority  as  an 
ambassador  of  peace,  and  were  to  make  it  a 
definite  part  of  his  mission  to  plead  the  cause 
of  brotherhood  with  all  other  peoples.  No 
governments  could  resist  such  concerted  ap- 
peal.    The  Church  of  Christ  can,  if  she  will. 


ROMANCE   OF   MODERN   PREACHING     293 

make  the  Hague  Tribunal  the  centre  of  the 
world's  hopes.  In  my  honest  judgment,  un- 
less the  Church  brings  this  era  of  mihtarism 
to  a  close,  and  exorcises  the  demons  of  hated, 
suspicion  and  aggression,  there  is  no  power 
that  can.  And  it  is  right  in  the  line  of  the 
missionary  crusade.  It  is  but  obedience  to 
marching  orders,  after  all.  I  want  to  appeal 
to  you  to  include  this  definitely  in  your 
military  accoutrement — this  fighting  faith  in 
a  world  subject  to  reason  and  justice  because 
Christ-ruled.  I  ask  you  to  believe  that  no 
ideal  of  organized  Peace  is  too  extravagant 
or  ambitious  to  stand  within  your  horizon. 
To-day,  all  the  dreams  of  science,  which  were 
discredited  and  derided  for  generations  by 
that  much  overrated  quality  called  common- 
sense,  are  coming  true.  The  children  of 
faith  and  imagination  have  had  revealed  unto 
them  what  was  hidden  from  the  sapient  and 
prudent. 

"  The  Heavens  fill  with  commerce,  argosies  of  magic 
sails, 
Pilots  of  the  purple  twilight,  dropping  down  with 
costly  bales," 


294        THE  ROMANCE   OF   PREACHING 

Science's  predictions  are  coming  true ; 
science's  splendid  faith  is  being  justified. 
Tfie  impossible  is  happening  before  our  eyes. 
The  sages  are  being  confounded  ;  and,  as  al- 
ways happens,  the  seers  are  triumphing,  and 
the  visionaries  and  the  idealists  are  seen  to 
be  the  supremely  practical  people.  But  we 
are  still  short-sighted  ;  at  odds  with  the  man 
who  sees  a  stage  further  than  we  can.  Mr. 
Arnold  Bennett's  inventor  is  full  of  scorn  for 
the  man  who  is  the  mere  slave  of  yesterday 
and  who  will  not  believe  that  a  wooden  ship 
must  give  way  to  an  iron  ship,  but  he  is 
equally  scornful  of  the  heir  of  to-morrow  who 
perceives  that  ari  iron  ship  must  give  way  to 
a  steel  ship.  But  the  most  urgent  question 
of  our  day  is  whether  moral  progress  is  going 
to  keep  pace  with  material  progress. 

"  If  we  trod  the  deeps  of  ocean,  if  we  struck  the  stars 
in  rising, 

If  we  wrapt  the  globe  intently  with  one  hot  electric 
breath, 

'Twere  but  power  within  our  tether,  no  new  spirit- 
power  comprising, 

And  in  life  we  were  not  greater  men  nor  bolder  men 
in  death." 


ROMANCE   OF   MODERN   PREACHING     295 

We  hail  the  realized  hopes  and  dreams  of 
science,  but  shall  the  higher  science  arrive 
with  her  material  miracles,  and  is  there  to 
be  nothing  but  defeat  and  despair  for  the 
higher  morality  ?  Shall  Reason  win  the  day 
in  every  sphere  except  where  her  victories 
would  be  most  fruitful  ?  Shall  we  erase  from 
the  canvas  of  the  future  the  most  glowing  of 
all  visions — the  day  of  Humanity 

"  When  the  war-drum  throbs  no  longer,  and  the  bat- 
tle-flags are  furled 
In  the  Parliament  of  man,  the  Federation  of  the 
world." 

Who  will  say  that  man  shall  ride  upon  the 
wings  of  the  wind,  and  talk  across  the  empty 
spaces  of  ocean  from  ship  to  ship  and  from 
shore  to  shore,  and  yet  shall  not  conquer  the 
selfishness,  mistrust  and  hatred  in  his  own 
heart  ?  Who  will  say  that  he  shall  vanquish 
every  physical  disease,  only  to  be  conquered 
by  the  venom  of  malice,  envy  and  suspicion 
that  poisons  the  veins  of  his  own  soul  ?  No, 
if  you  do  your  duty,  the  progress  in  the 
world's  idealism  shall  keep  pace  with  her 
advance    in    material    prosperity ;  and    the   ^ 


296        THE   ROMANCE   OF   PREACHING 

Church's  early  ideal  of  internationalism  shall 
be  realized,  with  its  glorious  consequences  in 
the  deliverance  of  the  weary  nations  from  the 
burdens  beneath  which  they  groan ;  and  the 
emancipation  of  the  human  spirit  everywhere, 
from  those  dark  shadows  of  mistrust  and  fear 
which  have  been  the  perpetual  nightmare  of 
the  past. 

I  have  done.  It  remains  only  for  me  to 
congratulate  you  on  your  birthright.  You 
are  born  to  an  inheritance  in  a  great  and 
splendid  age.  All  the  Christian  centuries 
offer  you  their  hoarded  wealth.  For  you 
every  prophet  has  prophesied  until  now  ;  for 
you  the  martyrs  suffered,  and  the  saints  glori- 
fied God  in  shining  lives  of  holy  love  and 
service.  For  you  the  poets  have  sung,  and 
at  your  feet  every  one  of  the  world-thinkers 
has  laid  the  harvest  of  his  brain.  For  the 
last  hundred  years  Science  has  been  weaving 
its  wizard  spells  about  this  earth,  and  draw- 
ing us  all  nearer  and  nearer  together,  so  that 
we  may  contribute  what  is  best  in  our  life  to 
the    common   stock   of   the  world's  wealth. 


ROMANCE  OF   MODERN   PREACHING     297 

Into  this  magnificent  heritage  you  have  been 
born ;  and  into  the  full  possession  of  it  you 
are  about  to  enter.  My  advice  to  you  is,  in 
a  word,  "Belong  to  your  century."  "Hold 
fast  that  which  thou  hast,  that  no  man  take 
thy  crown."  To  be  alive  here  and  now,  with 
the  call  of  God  in  your  souls,  and  the  widen- 
ing opportunities  of  to-day  at  your  doors,  is 
indeed  to  have  been  crowned  by  Heaven.  Let 
no  man  discrown  you.  Do  not  live  in  the 
past.  Do  not  let  the  glamour  of  days  and 
events  gone  by  seduce  you  from  your  loyalty 
to  the  present  hour.  Whatever  faults  may 
be  chargeable  to  our  century,  it  is  the  best 
century  for  you  and  me.  That  is  why  I  ap- 
peal to  you  with  all  affection  and  solemnity. 
"  To-day,  oh,  that  ye  would  hear  His  voice  !  " 
The  voice  of  God  in  the  life  of  to-day! 

I  have  recalled  to  you,  in  the  course  of 
these  lectures,  some  of  the  memorable  words 
and  deeds  of  those  whose  names  are  inscribed 
in  letters  of  gold  on  the  roll  of  the  Church's 
leaders  and  prophets.  It  would  have  been  a 
great  thing  no  doubt  to  have  run  with  Tim- 
othy on  some  errand  for  St.  Paul.     It  would 


298        THE   ROMANCE   OF   PREACHING 

have  been  a  great  thing  to  have  dared  every- 
thing for  Christ  when  Nero  was  on  the  throne. 
It  would  have  been  a  great  thing  to  have 
confronted  emperors  with  Athanasius,  to  have 
died  for  freedom  with  Savonarola,  to  have 
crossed  the  Atlantic  with  Brewster  and  Brad- 
ford, to  have  waked  the  world  to  new  spiri- 
tual life  with  Whitefield  and  Wesley.  But  let 
no  man  say  that  our  age  is  inferior  in  oppor- 
tunity to  any  that  has  gone  before.  The  one 
demand  is  the  consecrated  spirit,  and  the  for- 
ward mind. 

It  will  belong  to  your  ministry  to  conserve 
for  the  men  and  women  of  to-day  the  eternal 
truths  in  which  our  fathers  lived,  but  to  pre- 
sent those  truths  as  they  have  passed  through 
the  living  mind  and  been  shined  upon  by  the 
broadening  light,  that  is  the  precious  gift  of 
God  to  our  generation.  I  think  perhaps  this 
ministry  of  yours  can  be  best  realized  from 
that  description  of  the  conversation  between 
the  prophet  Brand  and  his  wife  Agnes,  that 
we  owe  to  the  genius  of  Ibsen, 

Brand  says : 


ROMANCE   OF  MODERN   PREACHING     299 

"  Oftentimes  ray  light  is  low, 

Dim  my  reason,  dull  my  thought, 

And  there  seems  a  kind  of  gladness 

In  immeasurable  sadness. 

In  such  hours  as  these  I  see 

God,  as  at  no  other,  near ; 

Oh,  so  near,  it  seems  to  me 

I  could  speak  and  He  would  hear. 

Like  a  lost  child  then  I  long 

To  be  folded  to  His  heart. 

And  be  gathered  by  His  strong 

Tender  Father-arms  to  rest." 

And  Agnes  says : 

"  Brand,  oh  see  Him  so  alway  ! 
To  thy  supplication  near  — 
God  of  love  and  not  of  fear." 

But  Brand  replies : 

"  No,  I  may  not  bar  His  way, 
Nor  run  counter  to  my  call ; 
I  must  see  Him,  vast,  sublime 
As  the  Heavens, — a  pigmy  Time, 
Needs  a  giant  God  withal  !  " 

"  Oh  !  but  thou  mayst  see  Him  near, 
See  Him  as  a  Father  dear. 
Bow  thy  head  upon  His  breast, 
There,  when  thou  art  weary,  rest. 
Then,  return,  with  face  aglow 
From  His  presence,  fair  and  free. 
Bear  His  glory  down  to  me 
Worn  with  battle-thrust  and  throe  !  " 


300       THE   ROMANCE  OF   PREACHING 

It  is  given,  I  think,  to  tiie  prophet  of  to- 
day to  combine  a  great  sense  of  God's  maj- 
esty and  might  with  an  equal  sense  of  His 
nearness  and  fathomless  love.  The  mighty 
God  is  the  Everlasting  Father,  and  we  must 
preach  the  Gospel  so.     As  Browning  says  : 

"  I  who  saw  Power  see  now  Love  perfect  too  !  " 

There  is  no  more  to  be  said.  Let  us  have 
courage.  Our  mission  is  to  inspire  men  ; 
and  in  Christ  is  inexhaustible  inspiration ; 
and  revelation  that  is  always  new.  In 
Mr.  Henry  James'  masterpiece  "Roderick 
Hudson,"  there  is  the  clever  successful  artist 
Gloriani,  who  has  sold  his  soul  to  make 
money,  and  grown  cynical  as  to  the  trans- 
action. He  thinks  the  true  inspiration  of 
genius  is  but  a  fickle  thing,  and  few  if  any 
can  afford  to  pay  the  price.  "My  dear 
fellow,"  he  says  to  the  real  artist  who  is 
suffering  from  temporary  eclipse  of  faith, 
"  passion  burns  out,  inspiration  runs  to  seed. 
Some  fine  day  every  artist  finds  himself  sit- 
ting face  to  face  with  his  lump  of  clay,  with 
his  empty  canvas,   with  his  sheet  of  blank 


ROMANCE  OF   MODERN   PREACHING     3OI 

paper,  waiting  in  vain  for  the  revelation  to 
be  made,  for  the  Muse  to  descend.  He  must 
learn  to  do  without  the  Muse.  When  the 
fickle  jade  forgets  her  way  to  your  studio 
don't  waste  any  time  in  tearing  your  hair 
and  meditating  suicide.  Come  round  and 
see  me,  and  I  will  show  you  how  to  console 
yourself." 

Many  has  been  the  minister  who  has 
thought  and  felt  like  that.  He  sees  himself 
sitting  before  a  blank  sheet  of  paper,  waiting 
in  vain  for  the  sermon  that  will  not  come. 
He  thinks  that,  if  not  now,  yet  a  score  of 
years  on,  his  inspiration  may  have  "  run  to 
seed."  What  is  he  to  do  ?  Is  he  "  to  learn 
to  do  without  the  Muse  "  ?  Is  he  to  "  con- 
sole himself "  by  some  lower  ideal  and  come 
to  regard  himself  as  a  hireling,  and  to  look 
upon  his  work  as  a  profession  and  a  liveli- 
hood ?  God  forbid.  We  cannot  do  without 
the  spirit — without  the  inspiration.  Without 
that  mystic  light  and  power,  our  art  is  in- 
deed barren  and  contemptible.  But,  re- 
member, our  inspiration  includes  all  others. 
Nature,    Poetry,    Art,    Literature,    Life — we 


302       THE   ROMANCE   OF  PREACHING 

have  the  freedom  of  all  the  schools.  And 
above  and  beyond  all  others,  we  have  the 
school  of  Christ.  No  minister  shall  ever  be 
bankrupt  of  a  message  who  is  living  in  that 
Society.  The  jaded  brain  may  sometimes 
refuse  its  office.  We  may  feel  some  Sunday 
evening  as  if  we  had  fired  our  last  shot. 
But  there  is  still  for  the  child  of  faith  a  cruse 
of  oil  and  a  barrel  of  meal,  that  mystically  do 
not  fail. 

The  miracle  of  our  calling  is  that  they  who 
wait  upon  the  Lord  renew  their  strength. 
We  may  not  always  mount  up  on  wings  as 
eagles,  nor  is  it  well  we  should.  But  by  the 
grace  of  God  vouchsafed  to  us  we  can  run 
and  not  be  weary  ;  we  can  walk — briskly, 
one  hopes  ! — and  not  faint.  In  the  splendid 
certainty  of  inspiration  which  is  the  gift 
of  a  God  whose  gifts  are  "  without  repent- 
ance," may  you  accept  your  ministry  at  your 
Master's  hands  ;  and  living  in  the  dignity 
and  the  glory  of  it,  serve  your  generation, 
by  the  will  of  God,  before  you  fall  asleep ! 

Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 


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An  Application  of   Scientific  Method   in  the   Ex- 
ploration of  Spiritual  Experience.     Cloth,  net  $1.50. 

This  comprehensive  handbook  of  theology  is  a  mediatory 
work  of  real  value,  combining  as  it  does  the  insight  of  a 
.spiritually  minded  man  with  the  keen  perception  of  one  who 
fully  recognizes  what  science  has  done  and  is  doing  to-day. 

JOHN  DOUGLAS  ADAM,  D.  D. 

Religion  and  the  Growing  Mind 

i2mo,  cloth,  net  75c. 

This  stimulating  treatise  on  the  development  of  a  science 
of  soul  culture  is  intended  primarily  for  young  people.  The 
expansion  of  the  spiritual  nature  is  shown  to  be  the  supreme 
thing  in  life.  In  clear,  brief,  logical,  sane  manner  Dr.  Adam 
describes  man's  psychical  nature  and  methods  of  its  develop- 
ment  in   terms  of   modern   psychology. 

W.  H.  P.  FAUNCE,  P.P. 

What  Does  Christianity  Mean? 

The  Cole  Lectures  for  1912.    i2mo,  cloth,  net  $1.25. 

Dr.  Faunce,  President  of  Brown  University,  has  chosen 
an  unusually  attractive  theme  which  is  discussed  in  this  series 
of  lectures  on  the  following  subjects: 

1.  The  Essence  of  the  Christian  Faith.  2.  The  Meanini; 
of  God.  3.  The  Basis  of  Character.  4.  The  principle  of 
Fellowship.  5.  The  Aim  of  Education.  6.  The  Goal  of 
Our   Effort. 


Date  Due 


trc^ 


NO  4  '53 


DE  M 


T^^'ni%>itni"r-'^r^- 


